City of Darebin Heritage Study Volume 1 Draft Thematic

DAREBIN HERITAGE STUDY STAGE 21.3 Flora and natural resourcesAt the time of European settlement, most of the study area is thought to have been covered bygrassy woodland (Oates & Taranto, 2001). Wedge’s second 1835 map of Port Phillipannotates the Darebin Creek area “lightly wooded country good grass” (Harcourt, 2001:69).On the soils derived from the Silurian siltstones and sandstones as well as the newer basaltwhich extends throughout most of Darebin, the grassy woodland was dominated by River RedGums (Oates & Taranto, 2001), some over 2 metres in diameter and probably older than 500years 3 . Their massive canopies and hollow branches provided habitat for possums, gliders,parrots, cockatoos, goannas, and a host of other wildlife, while the fallen branches shelteredwombats, echidnas, snakes, lizards and frogs. As described in the following section a huge rangeof insects and other invertebrates lived on their flowers, leaves and wood - or on otherinvertebrates, and themselves provided food for other wildlife.Under the Red Gums, there was a very open scattered shrub layer of various wattles, SweetBursaria and Tree Violet. The ground storey was grassy, in the drier areas being dominated byKangaroo Grass, and in the moister areas by Common Tussock-grass. Batman described thegrass as being waist-high and so thick that it was difficult to make progress through it (Salter,George, “The Journeys of John Batman through the Port Phillip District”, in Kenna,1988:17). Wildflowers such as Common Everlasting, Scaly Buttons, Blue Devil, ChocolateLily and Yam Daisy were abundant in the grassy understorey.On the soils derived from the Tertiary Brighton Sands geology, which tend to be on the highground, (refer to Map 3: Vegetation in 1750) a more diverse over-storey including a range ofeucalypt species and sometimes Sheoaks and Banksias tended to occur 4 . Smaller trees includedBlack Wattle and Blackwood Wattle as well as Cherry Ballart. Shrubs would have beenrelatively sparse, but the grassy understorey would still have been full of wildflowers (Oates &Taranto, 2001).The Preston Leader (8/5/1897, cited in Forster 1968) described Preston of the 1850s and 1860sas:Preston with its beautiful gardens, its well-wooded paddocks of Wattle, honeysuckle (i.e.Banksia), lightwood and many other native flowering trees and shrubs, was a place of beautyadmired by everyone.To the northwest and west, much of the newer basalt soils supported no, or only very sparse,trees (Oates & Taranto, 2001). This grassland 5 is thought to have just entered the northernedge of the municipality between Edgars and Merri Creeks, where it interweaved with the RedGum grassy woodland. The grassland was dominated by Kangaroo Grass, but with a mixtureof other wallaby grasses, tussock grasses, spear grasses etc. Twining amongst the grasses, and ingaps between the grasses and in areas cultivated and managed through burning by theAborigines, was a huge diversity of wildflowers including many tuberous plants - lilies andorchids as well as the abundant Murnong or Yam Daisy. These tubers formed the staple foodsof the local Aboriginal people. Many wildflowers enjoyed the spaces created by the regularburning, or thrived in areas where the Aboriginal women regularly dug. The grasslandsupported a somewhat different fauna from the woodlands, including animals like the StripedLegless Lizard, and the Fat-tailed Dunnart.On the Devonian volcanic quartz-feldspar of what is now known as Gresswell Hill (referred toas Mt Sugarloaf by Kenna, 1988) an unusual pocket occurred of Box Woodland (Muyt,2003:8) 6 . This had a mixture of box and gum eucalypts not found elsewhere, over a shrubbyunderstorey of plants from the pea family.3 Ecological Vegetation Class (EVC) 55 Plains Grassy Woodland4 EVC 175 Grassy Woodland5 EVC 132 Plains Grassland6 Oates & Taranto 2001 map shows EVC 22 Grassy Dry Forest on Gresswell Hill; Muyt 2003 argues that this wasin error.12