Earrings on native trees

To the imaginative eye, mistletoes may look like earrings hanging gloriously at the outer edges of native trees, providing a brilliant splash of bling. Though, they mostly try to be discreet and blend in, like the most exquisite earrings, they do transform during the day with changes in the natural light, and especially from month to month, as they transition from chandelier-like leafy splendour, to a delicate floral beauty, and ultimately to eye-catching, pendulous, fruity,  orbs.
  
Mistletoes are also a critical part of healthy Australian ecosystems, that hundreds of wildlife depend on for food and for shelter. Sadly, they have been maligned and misunderstood for nearly as long as non-indigenous Australians have lived here.  

Did you know that in 1904, native mistletoes were declared a noxious weed and for 50 years we tried to exterminate them from our woodlands and forests? Thankfully, we didn’t succeed, largely because of the dedicated work of a little Aussie battler, the tiny Mistletoebird and his career partner, the Painted Honeyeater.

But first, here are the ABCs of mistletoes, before we begin to explore the full mistletoe story.

The word mistletoe's quirky origin

Mistle-toe is from two Anglo-Saxon words, ‘mistel,’ for dung and ‘tan,’ for twig, which makes sense when you know that mistletoe seeds are spread by birds in their droppings onto the small branches of various host trees.

In Australia, the Mistletoebird and the Painted Honeyeater are the mistletoe specialists. They have evolved a technique to efficiently ‘plant’ the sticky seeds onto host-tree branches. It takes only 15 minutes for a meal of sweet berries to pass through the Mistletloebird’s modified gut. A quick wipe of its bottom on a suitable branch and there the seed sticks until it germinates. 

Then each seed sends out a modified root, called an haustorium (from the Latin word haustor, which appropriately means drinker), that penetrates the bark of a branch until it reaches the host plant's sap-stream. Studies have shown that nearly 100% of the seeds germinate when they are expertly placed by Mistletoebirds and Painted Honeyeaters.

Mistletoe seeds then develop into woody plants that continue to ‘hitch a ride’ on their host for decades, taking water, minerals and nutrients. Mistletoe leaves photosynthesize their own sugars, so they're not fully dependent on their host, and are therefore classified as semi-parasites or hemi-parasites.
 
…and they do give something back to their host tree, as you will read a little later. 

Click on the Mistletoebird image to watch David Attenborough's very cute 3 minute video of the Mistletoebird doing its 'seed planting dance.'                                          

First Australians valued mistletoe
 
Unlike the first settlers from Europe, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples appreciated mistletoe for its food and medicinal values. For example, the berries of mistletoe were food for the Wadawurrung people from the Geelong, Ballarat, Werribee region of Victoria. They called it ‘Bal-yep’ (bal – to pound & yep – to eat), which suggests that they may have made a pesto-like mixture, with the seed and the soft fruit blended into a sweet protein-rich paste.

Among their favourites were the Wire-leaf Mistletoe berry, which looks and tastes like a miniature lychee and the Harlequin Mistletoe berry (Lysiana exocarpi) which is a sweet red berry about the size of a red current.

From central & western NSW, the Wiradjuri people called it ‘Wilburugil’ which may relate to the berries of the Box Mistletoe, Ameyema miquelii, that they called ‘Snotty Gobbles’ and ate like a natural chewing gum.
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Mistletoe foliage was ground into poultices to treat scabies and other skin conditions and the leaves were steeped in water to make a tonic for the common cold.

The diminutive and beautiful Mistletoebird

The male Mistletoebird has a bright scarlet-red chest, a glossy blue-black head and wings, with a white belly. Because it’s a member of the Flowerpecker family, the males have been nicknamed ‘Fire-breasted flowerpeckers’.

​The females, as often is the case in the bird world, are much more subdued with dark grey above, pale grey to white below, and no red chest.

The Mistletoebird’s nest is built within the mistletoe plant itself, from spider webs and flower blossoms to create a warm and cosy nook.

The Mistletoebird has formed a symbiotic relationship with mistletoe plants, so in exchange for its delicious fruits, the bird distributes the mistletoe seed. They tend to stay in areas of the woodland or forest where the mistletoe grows.

Other fruit eating birds also eat the berries and spread them further afield, though not nearly as efficiently, with far less seed successfully germinating on host trees.

Mistletoe magic

In the famous Asterix comic series, the village druid Getafix collects mistletoe to brew a magic potion that gives the Gauls superhuman strength.
In ‘Asterix the Gaul,’ Getafix explains;
 
"Here is the potion that makes the drinker invincible. It increases his strength tenfold for a limited period of time." (René Goscinny, 1959)
 
The druid made his magic potion from European Mistletoe, Viscum album, which is one of 4 species of mistletoe native to Europe and the only mistletoe native to Great Britain. This mistletoe is also famously known as the ‘kissing mistletoe’ with the belief that it will bring fertility and peace.
 
Getafix always harvested the mistletoe with a golden sickle during the winter solstice from a ‘sacred’ oak tree. Curiously, oak trees are an extremely rare host for this mistletoe species. It is usually found on apple, linden, poplar, willow and hawthorn, though some sub-species of European Mistletoe select fir and pine as their preferred host trees. Though European Mistletoe is not found in Australia we are one of the worlds hotspots for mistletoe diversity.
 
Compared to most of the world, Australia is rich in mistletoes with 97 species. DNA evidence indicates that the most diverse and colourful family of mistletoes (Loranthaceae) first appeared here, on the Gondwana supercontinent, 50 million years ago, so they are undisputably native to Australia.
 
Our indigenous mistletoes are hosted by over 4,500 species of flowering plants from 20 different plant families. 47 of these native mistletoes are found in southern Australia and 12 are found in Victoria.
 
‘Mistletoes are found throughout mainland Australia (not Tasmania). In forests and woodlands, deserts and heathlands. They also abound in urban and agricultural areas, making them some of the continent’s most cosmopolitan plants.
(David Watson, 2019. Mistletoes of Southern Australia. Second Edition)

Mistletoe mystery – how it ‘punches’ well above its weight!
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Australian mistletoes have their own super-powers, and like Asterix the Gaul, they punch well above their weight. They are described by mistletoe expert Dr. David Watson as a ‘keystone species’ because so many wildlife depend on their nectar, their berries, and their nutrient rich leaves. If keystone species are lost, entire ecologies are likely to collapse, just like a brick-arch will crumble if its keystone is removed.
 
41 species of birds, mainly honeyeaters, have been recorded feeding on mistletoe flowers. The endangered Regent Honeyeater depends on them as a source of nectar and for nesting. Mistletoe nectar is highly attractive to butterflies and moths and other invertebrates. Brush-tailed Possums and Yellow-bellied Gliders have been seen feeding on mistletoe flowers. 33 bird species have been recorded feeding on mistletoe berries.
 
Many birds nest in mistletoe because it provides cool, dense shelter. Even Ringtail & Brushtail Possums use mistletoe clumps for daytime shelter and eat the nutritious leaves.
 
Many butterflies have developed a unique association with mistletoe. The larvae of Azure Butterflies and Jezabel’s depend on mistletoe leaves as their main food source. Genoveva Azure, Ogyris genoveva, caterpillars feed at night on Box Mistletoe leaves, while they are watched-over and protected by ants. The ants escort the caterpillars to their nest for safe shelter by day and are rewarded with the caterpillar’s sugary secretions.
 
For birds, possums and insects, mistletoes are natures air-conditioners, pumping out cooled air on hot days while providing a shadier environment. With warmer summers predicted, the densely branched clumps of mistletoes offer cool respite because they never stop transpiring and cooling the air around them. Unlike their host trees that conserve water on hot days by shutting down transpiration.

Testing the ‘keystone species’ theory
 
‘Mistletoes are keystone species and an important feature of healthy woodlands and forests.’ (Watson, 2012)

David Watson led a radical 3-year study in 2012 to test this ‘keystone species’ theory. With the help of volunteers, he removed all the mistletoes from 17 native woodland areas of 44 box & gum grassy-woodlands in south-west NSW, to measure the effect on birds.

He found that the numbers of woodland bird species dropped by a remarkable 33%, and the total bird species richness fell by an extraordinary 20%. Rather than just the fruit-eaters and nectar feeding species, the group showing the greatest decline were the insect-eaters, especially those birds that feed mostly on the forest floor. 

This unexpected discovery was explained by looking more closely at mistletoe leaf-litter. Mistletoes produce a lot more leaf-litter than their hosts, and they concentrate the nutrients provided by the host tree, significantly increasing potassium, phosphorous, manganese and a range of other elements.

One study showed that trees with around 10% of their canopy as mistletoe, yielded double the amount of leaf litter over a 12-month period. This was particularly important for the build-up of litter under eucalypts that hold on to their leaves for 3-4 years.

Their companion mistletoes drop leaves within 1 year, providing a much quicker turnover of nutrients. An added boost for ground feeding insects, birds, and reptiles is that mistletoes shed leaves regularly throughout the year, whereas their host eucalypts and acacias, shed mostly in the summer. Therefore. mistletoes substantially increase the quantity and the quality of ground litter, so much so that a recent study found over 1,000 more insects per square metre when mistletoe is present. (Watson et al. 2022).
 
This is a link to the mistleitoe section of David Watson’s excellent website:
Follow his links to some facinating reading.

The pendulous earrings of mistletoe dangling from native trees, may historically have been considered a high-end luxury item that the trees couldn’t afford, but fortunately bold research has shown them to be a ‘keystone species’ that countless wildlife depend on.

The question then arises, what is a healthy and sustainable number of mistletoes that a native tree can support? The answers to this enigma, as it is with many of the ecological challenges we face, will be found in patient observation.
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But there is much more to this fascinating mistletoe story, and that will be revealed in part 2.

The Bellarine Peninsula's original vegetation

Early settler diaries often described the Bellarine Peninsula as a land that was ideal for grazing and cropping. They were delighted with its open woodlands, its extensive grasslands and its fertile soils. John Batman, one of the founders of Melbourne, describes it as, 'softly undulating hills and plains with the richest grass and verdure so delightful to the eyes of a sheep farmer.'

Batman and others also described it as being like a ‘gentleman’s park’ suggesting that it was an open landscape with established well-spaced trees and uniform grassy plains. What they did not appreciate was that a unique geomorphology and over 2,000 generations of human occupation had shaped this living landscape. 

The soil was varied as was the vegetation it supported. On the highest ground the black ‘older volcanic’ clay loam was shaded by well spaced Drooping Sheoaks (Allocasuarina verticillata) and other small trees. To the west and south, fertile marine sandy loams, elevated by movement along the Bellarine and Leopold faults, provided the perfect conditions for eucalypt grassy woodlands to thrive. Open eucalypt woodlands also developed on the east side of the Bellarine Peninsula on the gentler slopes bordering Swan Bay,

On the most recent alluvial soils in low-lying areas at the Lake Connewarre wetlands and the numerous salt lakes on the south side of the Peninsula, there were unique and hardy plant communities. Examples of these are the Moonah (Melaleuca lanceolata) woodlands and White Mangroves (Avecinnia marina), which supported twelve types of salt marsh vegetation, the glassworts and seablite, being important foods for the critically endangered Orange-bellied Parrot (Neophema chrysogaster) that has migrated in winter from Tasmania to the Bellarine Peninsula for millennia.
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The Wadawurrung people are the traditional owners and stewards of the lands and waters that extended from the Geelong-Lorne coastline inland to Ballarat and Werribee. They shaped its vegetation with sophisticated management practices for more than 40,000 years. The people that lived on the Bellarine Peninsula were the Bengalat Clan. 

An open grassy woodland

An open grassy woodland is what the early explorers described on their exploratory visits to the Bellarine Peninsula in the early 1800s.

In Autumn 1802 Matthew Flinders described the vegetation on the northern side
(Flinders had named the Bellarine Peninsula ‘Indented Head’);

‘Indented Head, at the northern part of the western peninsula, had an appearance particularly agreeable; the grass had been burned not long before and had sprung up green and tender.

‘The wood was so thinly scattered that one might see to a considerable distance and the hills rose one over the other to a moderate elevation… the soil probably not deep, as I judged by the small size of the trees……the most common kinds of wood are the casuarina and eucalyptus.’
 
John Batman anchored near Point Henry in Autumn 1835, walked east about 32km and climbed the Bellarine Hills. He described;

‘Very rich light black soil covered in Kangaroo Grass two feet high [0.6 m] and as thick as it could stand. The trees were not more than six to the acre and those small sheoak and wattle. I walked for a considerable extent and all of the same description… and most of the high hill was covered with grass to the summit and not a tree’.

Batman was describing a very open and grassy environment at the summit, and the lower slopes with a small tree every 25 – 30 metres. He makes no mention of eucalypts, which suggests that they were either absent or in small numbers.

Thirty-two years before, James Fleming, the agriculturalist of the Grimes survey team, that assessed the bay and surrounding landscapes for it's potential for settlement, climbed Mt. Bellarine confirming Batman’s description;

   ‘…the timber small, oak and mimosa of sorts.’  

Trees and shrubs of Mount Bellarine, Portarlington

Mount Bellarine is an ancient volcano from an age called the Oligocene. Basalt lava and fiery emissions from Mt. Bellarine lit up the night skies over 25 million years ago. The soil that has developed from the basalt is a fertile clay loam that shrinks and cracks in the dry seasons.

These volcanic hills rise to 120m above sea level, which exposes trees and shrubs to punishing winds. A well-adapted, widespread tree that survives today is the Drooping Sheoak, (Allocasuarina verticillata).

Another durable small tree that has adapted well to the clay soil is the broadleaf Sweet Bursaria (Bursaria spinose var. macrophylla). A few very old Sweet Bursaria still survive in the Portarlington cemetery and represent a widespread plant community of the past.
 
The mimosa mentioned by Batman and Flemming would have been Black Wattle (Acacia mearnsii), Lightwood (A. implexa), Golden Wattle (A. pycnantha) and Hedge Wattle (A. paradoxa). All can still be seen on Mt. Bellarine today, though there are no remnant eucalypts on the elevated areas.

The River Red Gum (Eucalyptus camaldulensis), and Blackwood (Acacia melanoxylon) grow along drainage lines on the volcanic soils between Portarlington and Drysdale. Examples of mature River Red Gums can still be seen at Drakes Bushland Reserve east of Drysdale. These majestic trees would have been widespread in 1835. 

Marine sandy loams: Drysdale

The elevated hills to the north, south and west of Drysdale are composed of an extensive thin sheet of sands, silts, clays and gravels. They formed around five million years ago under retreating shallow seas in the Pliocene. The deposits left behind developed into sandy soils and sandy loams that suited a more diverse mix of grassland plants, shrubs and trees. The topography and quantity of clay in the soil determined which plants would thrive. In January 1803 Surveyor Charles Grimes described the vegetation on hills between Clifton Springs and Point Richards;

‘…gentle rising hills of good land thinly wooded with low and decayed timber.’
(This observation at the end of a dry summer was of vegetation that had been regularly exposed to hot north winds).

There are only a few remnant plants still surviving along the steep coastal cliffs that hint at what Grimes would have seen. These are Drooping Sheoak, Golden Wattle, Moonah (Melaleuca lanceolate), Common Boobialla (Myoporum insulare) and Seaberry Saltbush (Rhagodia candolleana).
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Inland the protected gullies and ephemeral creeks would have supported River Red Gums. McLeod’s Waterhole Reserve in Drysdale is fed by permanent springs. Originally it consisted of bogs and marshes that fed a creek that flowed into Corio Bay. River Red Gums and associated wetland species like Swamp Gum, Blackwood, Black Sheaok (Allocasuarina littoralis), Moonah, Hop Goodenia (Goodenia ovata), Prickly Tea-tree (Leptospermum continentale), Shrub Everlasting (Ozothamnus ferrugineus) and Golden Spray (Viminaria juncea) would have thrived around this wetland environment. Only eleven River Red Gum specimens remained in 1962 and only one is left today.

Curlewis

Two kilometres west of McLeod’s Waterhole Reserve near Curlewis is ‘Coriyule’, the original home of Anne Drysdale and Caroline Newcombe built in 1849. This was a flat landscape of well-spaced trees and grasslands. The low areas would have been dominated by River Red Gum and the drier areas by Coast Manna Gum. The usual mix of other species would have included Drooping Sheoak, Black Wattle, Lightwood, Golden Wattle and Silver Banksia (Banksia marginata).

 Anne Drysdale wrote in her journal ‘there was an abundance of wildlife in the area in the form of kangaroos, emus and scrub turkeys’. She also recalled acacias, sheoaks and wildflowers;
​‘the place is so beautiful, clean and fresh, it’s like a nobleman’s park’
​

Eucalypt woodlands: Ocean Grove and Wallington
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Eucalypts were an important canopy tree on the Pliocene sandy loams. In protected areas they grow into substantial trees like the Bellarine Yellow Gum (Eucalyptus leucoxylon subsp. bellarinensis) which was wide spread. It thrived on the undulating landscapes of Ocean Grove where the soil is sandy loam with a clay subsoil. There is still a significant stand north of Thacker Street that has been recognised by Ecology Australia as being a site of National Conservation Significance.

The Bellarine Yellow Gum is an important food source for the endangered Swift Parrot (Lathamus discolor). These colourful birds breed in Tasmania and have migrated to the mainland in winter for millennia to feed on the nectar of this flowering eucalypt species.  

Usually associated with the Yellow Gums is the Coast Manna Gum in well drained areas and Swamp Gums where the drainage is poor. The latter association can still be seen in the Ocean Grove Nature Reserve where the Swamp Gum is the dominant eucalypt species. Other species that are part of the ecological mix in the Nature Reserve are Black Sheoak, Austral Grasstrees, Hedge Wattle, Golden Wattle and Coast Tea-tree.
           
It is likely that the Yellow Gum was widespread throughout the elevated Pliocene soils with a clay base. This would give it a potential distribution from the raised areas of Leopold, round the higher northern and eastern slopes of Lake Connewarre (where it was historically recorded on the higher slopes) and then east to a line between Marcus Hill and Curlewis. It is east of this line that the sandy soils become deeper and the Manna Gum becomes the dominant eucalypt species

The Coastal Manna Gum usually has an understorey of Drooping Sheoak, Black Sheoak, Black Wattle and Austral Grasstree. This ecological mix of species can be seen at Basin Reserve east of Drysdale. This is a four-hectare undulating remnant of indigenous vegetation where Cherry Ballart; Kangaroo Apple (Solanum aviculare), Silky Tea-tree (Leptospermum myrsenoides) and Prickly Tea-tree also grow.

​Mannerim sheoaks






​Toward Mannerim the Drooping Sheoak once again was dominant in the harder, gravelly, wind eroded Pliocene soil. The large trunks on some of the Drooping Sheoaks in a private reserve suggest that they are very old trees. This open woodland of well-spaced Drooping Sheoaks is likely to be similar to the original woodland of sheoaks that once provided the ideal habitat for the locally extinct Bush Stone-curlew (Burhinus grallarius), its eery call last heard in the 1950’s. The habitat requirements of the curlew suggest that a large area of Drooping Sheoak open woodlands would have existed around Mannerim to support a stable population. 

For example, one pair of Bush Stone-curlews would need a home-range 10-20ha and a minimum of 500 birds is recommended for sufficient genetic diversity to maintain a viable curlew community. This equates to 5,000ha - 10,000ha of Drooping Sheoaks and other small trees, plus tussock grasses and fallen logs to provide enough shelter on the ground. 

Grasstrees were more widespread

John Batman recorded in his diary on the 29 May 1835 a description of the landscape and trees west of St Leonards;
‘….as a relief to the landscape, the rising eminences were adorned with wattle, native     
honeysuckle [banksia] and the sheoak whose short straight stumpy butts and round heads         
resembled a number of pins sticking in a lady’s pincushion.’
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Batman’s colourful description of sheoaks sounds unlike Drooping Sheoak and more like Grass Trees (Xanthorrhoea australis) which are still found on the sandy soils near Drysdale at the Basin Reserve, Ocean Grove, north-east of Wallington and on the heaths and heathy woodlands of the Borough of Queenscliffe. It’s likely that Grass Trees were far more widespread on the sandy soils than they are today.

​The younger alluvial sands:
‘A gentleman’s park’ - Swan Bay, St Leonards, Indented Head

More recent marine alluvial sand deposits and coastal calcium rich dunes formed during a time of rapid and repeated climate change 2.6 million to 10,000 years ago in the Pleistocene. These softer alluvial sands formed flat plains which can be seen at St Leonards, west of Swan Bay and at Portarlington’s Point Richards Flora and Fauna Reserve.
          
James Fleming described the trees of the land near St Leonards in February 1803;

‘The land is light sand from the point of the hill and in some places swampy; the timbers something larger consisting of gum, oak, banksia and mimosa and some small pine, one half 
of it dead by the country being lately burnt.’

The well-drained, low nutrient loams that developed from these marine sand deposits formed flat plains that suited the Bellarine Yellow Gums. Healthy mature examples of these can be seen at the southern end of Grassy Point Road. These trees are remnants of a much larger community of Yellow Gums that would have occupied the higher ground across the eastern end of the Bellarine Peninsula. A grassland shaded by well-spaced giant eucalypts clearly evokes Batman’s image of ‘a gentleman’s park’.
 
On the flat plains west of Swan Bay, St Leonards and Indented Head, River Red Gums occupied the moister drainage lines. Mature examples of these are growing on the creek behind Indented Head. Moister soils suited the Swamp Gum.
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Other significant species that can be seen on the roadsides are Drooping Sheoak, Cherry Ballart (Exocarpus cupressiformis), Golden Wattle, Black Wattle, Sweet Bursaria and Seaberry Saltbush. These would have formed the open woodland community, supported by Manna Gum, Silver Banksia, Black Sheoak (likely to be the ‘small pine’ mentioned by Fleming), Common Boobialla and Hop Goodenia.
​Kangaroo Grass, orchids, lilies and herbs would have been prominent amongst the Grassland flora.  

​The first detailed plant records of St. Leonards

Sailing with Matthew Flinders in Autumn 1802 were naturalist Robert Brown and botanical artist Ferdinand Bauer. They explored the land behind St Leonards and recorded 95 plant species. Some of the specimens collected around Edwards Point and St Leonards were;
(Note: I have updated their botanical names)

Canopy trees– Eucalyptus camaldulensis, River Red Gum, E. viminalis subsp. Pryoriana, Coast Manna Gum; E. ovata, Swamp Gum
Understorey – Silver Banksia, Banksia marginata; Cherry Ballart, Exocarpos cupressiformis, Drooping Sheoak, Allocasuarina verticillata
Shrubs - Native Holly, Lomatia ilicifolia; Wirilda, Acacia retinodes; Moonah, Melaleuca lanceolata; Coast Beard Heath, Leucopogan parviflorus; Coast Tea-tree, Leptospermum laevigatum (now Gaudium laevigatum - renamed in 2023)
Ground layer - Bidgee Widgee, Acaena novae zelandiae; Bower Spinach, Tetragonia tetragonioides; Creeping Brookweed, Samolus repens; Common Flatweed, Platylobium obtusangulum; Sword Sedge, Lepidospermum congestum, Blady Grass, Imperata cylindrica;
Climbers - Fine-leafed Clematis, Clematis microphylla, Native Pea, Glycine clandestina
           

St. Leonard’s big trees

Lieutenant James Tuckey surveyed Port Phillip Bay in October 1803 and walked over 2 km inland from near St Leonards. He described the natural environment as ‘beautiful country, thickly wooded, but the soil sandy and without water’. He was interested in trees that could be used to repair battleships and wrote;

‘The Honeysuckle (banksia) is the largest tree found here; it grows near the shore and in most dry and sandy places. The shaft seldom exceeds eight feet [2.4 m], the branches large and straggling and if sound of sufficient growth for a line of battleships knees and timbers.'

There is an ongoing debate about whether Tuckey was describing Coast Banksia (Banksia integrifolia) or the now very rare and much larger tree form of Silver Banksia (B. marginata). The jury is still out, though ecologists mostly agree that the Coast Banksia is not indigenous to the Bellarine Peninsula

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Captain George Cole was a colonial entrepreneur. He purchased large areas of land around St Leonards in 1857 that was described by the real-estate agent as ‘thickly wooded with gum, honeysuckle and wattle’ One of his many enterprises was selling firewood into Melbourne where local supplies were already exhausted.

Clearing started,
‘…and axes bit deep into the trees. Piles of wood stood awaiting transport. St Leonards became noted for its timber trade. At one period it is said there were over 300 men employed in this work. Timber-cutting, as a big industry, lasted until the 1870s.’

Herbs, orchids and lilies
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The open areas on the sandy dry soils of Indented Head were rich in herbs, lilies and orchid species. These plants have evolved succulent roots to store water and energy to sustain them through drought and extreme heat. These succulent roots were an important food source for the Bengalat clan.

For example, in a few hours Bengalat women could harvest enough Murnong (Microceris walteri) and other tubers to fill a large basket;

‘The native women were spread out over the plain as far as the eye could see, collecting            
Murnong, or in their language 'pannin,' … I inspected their bags and baskets on return and each
had a load as much as she could carry.’
(George Augustus Robinson, Chief Protector of Aborigines, Port Phillip District (Victoria), 1838)
 
The Derwent Company started a large sheep run on the Bellarine Peninsula in 1836. The sheep quickly developed a taste for Murnong roots and by 1840 the Bengalat women were distraught because;

   ‘the ngamadjig (sheep) eat it all’
 
There was no Murnong left for them to harvest anywhere near Geelong.

​Point Richards Flora and Fauna Reserve
​
This 62ha reserve is situated on unconsolidated sands that were laid down when the sea level rose about 90m, at the end of the last ice age around 8,000 years ago. About 3,000 years later, the sea level fell about 1m and the sea retreated, creating flat sand-covered coastal plains like the Point Richards Flora and Fauna Reserve.

It was set aside in the 1970s to protect a population of Southern Brown Bandicoots (Isoodon obesulus) that was surviving in the sheltered environment created by extensive areas of Spiny-headed Mat-rush (Lomandra longifolia) and Bracken Fern (Pteridium esculentum).
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The freshwater ephemeral wetlands in this reserve support the rare and endangered Growling Grass Frog (Litoria raniformis) as well as other species of frog. Their growling call in November would have been a sound heard throughout the Bellarine Peninsula’s freshwater wetlands before they were drained by the first settlers. These shallow wetlands would have been an important ecological feature of the alluvial sands. 

Indented Head, Barwon Heads Bluff, Thirteenth Beach
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The shallow seas of the Pleistocene around Mt. Bellarine were rich in marine life which later formed calcium rich deposits. This combination of sand and calcium hardened into a natural cement that resists erosion, creating the higher ground west of Indented Head, at the Bluff at Point Lonsdale and the dune formations along Thirteenth Beach.

Only the toughest plants can grow in these exposed dry coastal conditions and once again Drooping Sheoak and Moonah were dominant species. They were supported by a rich suite of hardy shrubs, grasses, herbs and groundcovers. Examples of these are Coast Wattle (Acacia sophorae), Common Boobialla, Coast Wirilda (Acacia uncifolia), Sea Box (Alyxia buxifolia), Coast Saltbush (Atriplex cineria), White Correa (Correa alba), Cushion Bush (Leucophyta brownii), Coast Daisy-bush (Olearia axillari), Thyme Rice-flower (Pimelea serpyllifolia ssp. Serpyllifolia), Running Postman (Kennedia prostrata) and Coast Beard Heath (Leucopogon parviflorus).

Lake Connewarre
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Less than 10,000 years old, these younger sediments are a combination of freshwater stream deposits and saline marine sediments. The 860ha Lake Connewarre Wetlands Complex receives fresh water from the Barwon River to the west and salty tidal flows at Barwon Heads to the south. It is one of the largest estuarine systems on the central Victorian coast covering 3,300 ha.
This wetlands complex consists of;

• The freshwater Reedy Lake
• The saline Lake Connewarre and lower Barwon River and Hospital Swamp
• Salt Swamp on the south side of the main lake
• Lake Murtnagurt.

At the time of European settlement Lake Connewarre was larger and twice as deep as it is today. 
 
Subdivision surveys of 1841 & 1852 recorded large gums, Drooping Sheoak and Silver Banksia. The large gums would have been the Bellarine Yellow Gum which were also recorded on the northern and eastern slopes of Lake Connewarre. This suggests that the Yellow Gum Woodlands would have extended at least as far as the Portarlington Road where the River Red Gum became the dominant eucalypt.

In 1855 Skene surveyed south of Lake Connewarre and he recorded;
​
‘…moderately to thickly timbered with sheoak and gum … other blocks were considerably encumbered by stumps of sheoak which have been used for firewood, the gum trees still remain.’

​The Barwon River estuary
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At the coastal end of Lake Connewarre is the Barwon River estuary which is home to the White Mangrove (Avicennia marina) growing on mudflats. The pneumatophores of the mangroves provide a protected nursery environment for many fish species and crustaceans that feed on the diverse macroalgae.

Learning from the past

When Batman’s party arrived at St Leonards on June 8th 1835 on the Bellarine Peninsula, he was surprised at the lightly timbered grasslands that he found. Except for inland areas, around St. Leonards, Drysdale and north of Lake Connewarre that were more densely wooded and dominated by large eucalypt species, the more elevated and exposed areas of the Peninsula were open and parklike.

This was no chance occurrence but a landscape created by the Bengalat clan. Using fire as a tool to manage the vegetation, they had developed a sustainable and productive landscape that they had cared for over 40,000 years.
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The European settlers quickly made their mark on the remarkable but fragile ecosystems. They introduced sheep, cleared native trees, planted crops, drained and filled many wetlands. It took only eighteen months for the Wadawurrung to be dispossessed from their land within a 25mile (40km) radius of Geelong - 4 years for agriculture and sheep to remove all the Murnong, and 40 years for the Peninsula to be cleared of most of its native vegetation. These radical landscape changes have put the unique ecologies of the Bellarine Peninsula under enormous stress.

There is an intriguing monument beside the coastal walking track between Portarlington and Indented Heads. I often stop and contemplate the rusting steel anchors that mark the site where Matthew Flinders may have pitched his tent some 224 years ago on April 29th, 1802.

If we could turn back the clock to the moment of Flinder's first visit to this beautiful landscape, hopefully we would choose a more biodiverse future for the Bellarine Peninsula and learn from the traditional knowledge and wisdom of the Bengalat clan of the Wadawurrung people.

As Homo sapiens we can trace our history back in time to our humble beginnings in East Africa some 300,000 years ago. Archaeologists believe that sapiens began spreading out of Africa about 70,000 years ago. Remarkably, they found their way to the distant continent of Australia in less than 10,000 years. Thus began the incredible story of the First Australians, who developed and refined the longest continuous culture on earth.

​It is believed that the first Australians probably numbered about 5,000 people, having arrived in small groups of 200 - 300 at a time, over 200 years. The population of Australia gradually increased as they migraged into the southern parts of the continent. At that time the landscape was dominated by giant marsupials and the climate was cooling and becoming more arid as the last ice age progressed toward it's peak about 29,000 years ago.

As they moved south, the First Australians adapted to an extraordinary variety of climates and landscapes, some very physically demanding, so their cultures and languages diversified, however, they retained one important common goal - to protect and preserve Australia’s unique flora and fauna, the plants and animals that their survival depended on.

​So began thousands of years of experimenting and learning about Australia’s very unusual plants; their culinary and healing properties, their value as food for the grazing animals they hunted and the ecosystems they supported, the best way to maintain and manage these ecosystems across the immense Australian continent.

Before the devestating Smallpox epidemic, that arrived with the First Fleet in 1788, Australia's Aboriginal population is estimated to have grown to about 2.5 million people. This is a conservative estimate based on recent studies of the carrying capacity of the Australian landscape. (Billy Griffiths, 2026 - The First Inventers).

The First Australians were Animists and considered plants and animals to be their equals. They used totemism to create very close and intimate links with Australia’s fauna. Individuals were given a personal totem at birth and this totem animal was loved as if it was part of their extended family. They developed a very detailed knowledge of their totem’s ecological needs and it was their duty to protect both their totem and its habitat.

Animists were the first conservationists and they believed that the natural world wasn’t just to provide for the needs of humans. They believed it should be protected and nurtured and failure to do so was wrong, and could also result in momentous consequences, like the extinction of species or loss of important habitats.

Yuval Noah Harari in his remarkable book ‘Sapiens, A Brief History of Humankind’, describes animist culture and gives this example;

‘An animist hunter addressing a herd of deer and asking one of them to sacrifice itself. If the hunt is successful the hunter may ask the dead animal to forgive him’.

This gesture shows recognition and deep respect for one life that has been taken to nourish another. ​

Explorer's first impressions of Victoria were of 'open landscapes with widely spaced trees'

​Lieutenant John Murray was the first to sail into Port Phillip Bay and describe the Australian bush on 14th February 1802, after climbing (and naming) Arthurs Seat, on the Mornington Peninsula. From his vantage point he compared it to, “the beauty and experience of Greenwich Park in London.“ 
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Murray also described;
‘...open woodlands with stout trees of various kinds that were pleasant to walk through because they were well spaced with no thick brush to intercept travellers.’ He saw grass huts and evidence of burning under trees.

The transition was swift and ruthless

The Port Phillip Association was formed in Van Diemen’s Land in 1835. Lead by John Batman and Joseph Gellibrand, the Association was responsible for the unlawful and ruthless land-grab of 250,000ha, which included the whole Bellarine Peninsula and the land between Geelong and Melbourne. 

Batman arrived on the Bellarine Peninsula in May 1835 and walked 20km east from Point Henry. He couldn't have been more delighted when he wrote in his diary;

‘the whole (landscape), appeared like land laid out as a farm for some 100 years back.’

Within nine days, Batman had  his bogus and meaningless contract of sale 'signed'  by Aboriginal men who didn't understand what the sheet of paper represented. Soon after, the first waves of settlers and their sheep began arriving. 

Joseph Tice Gellibrand, co-founder of The Port Phillip Association with John Batman, described the Bellarine vegetation on February 3, 1836;
 
‘The land is thinly timbered; the soil appeared very rich and fit for any purpose. The Kangaroo Grass was up to my middle and with a thick bottom. It is as fine a tract of land as any I have yet passed over.’

The burning question 

Explorer, Major Thomas Mitchel was one of the first to understand why the Australian landscapes were so open when the British colonists first arrived;

‘The native applies fire to the grass at certain seasons, so that a young green crop may subsequently spring up and so attract and enable him to kill or take the kangaroo with nets. In summer, the burning of the long grass also discloses vermin, birds’ nests, etc., on which the females and the children, who chiefly burn the grass, feed. 

​'But for this simple process, the Australian woods might have been as thick a jungle, like those of New Zealand or America, instead of open forests.’ (Mitchel, 1839)

Mitchel observed the changes that burning made to the Australian landscape, but he didn't fully appreciated the level of sophistocation of it's application.

A comprehensive review of the effects of Aboriginal burning on biota was done by Bowman in 1998. In his review he shone a clearer light on its importance;

'Fire is a powerful tool that Aborigines used systematically and purposeflly over the landscape. There is little doubt that Aborigtianl burning was skillful and central to the maintenance of the landscapes colonised by Europeans in the 19th century.'

Though, it had many other benefits to them, such as preventing devastating wildfires, which according to studies of charcoal deposits in swamps, were very rare before modern settlement. (Gell, Stuart & Smith, 1993) 

The First Australians used fire to keep many of the hilltops open. This enabled communication over long distances using an advanced system of smoke signals. Open hilltops also enhanced personal safety and clan security, by providing 360 degree views of their territory. They could keep an eye on who was coming and going and if they were friend or foe. In William Buckley's memoir, he describes how neighbouring clans would come into camp seeking justice or revenge for a percieved wrongdoing that could result in injury or death.

Burning was used to prepare future camping sites, provided vermin control (Eg. mosquitos), and to enable convenient travel, potentially over long distances, along the many songlines that criss-crossed Australia. 

Woodland & forest belts alternating with grasslands/pantrylands 

Bill Gammage in 'The Biggest Estate on Earth,' (2011), refers to early reports of grassland burning. He suggests that the First Australians aimed to create belts of grasslands alternating with woodlands or forests. These landscapes were ideal for both hunting and havesting plant foods.

The open woodlands were shaded hunting grounds that were often dominated by eucalypts and the Drooping Sheoak, Allocasuarina verticillata, which was highly valued by the First Australians in the southeastern states. One standout value of the sheoak to them (and to us) was its very low flammability. Its foliage chars and doesn't burn and its litter supresses grass growth. To read more about the Drooping Sheoak's cultural importance and it's uses click here.

The grasslands between belts of trees were important pantry lands that supplied desirable energy-rich root vegetables and selected grass seeds used for baking. On Victorian Volcanic Plains, 20% of the 550 species of plants were harvested for food and 50% of the food plants were thought to be root vegetables, which were conveniently available all year-round to harvest from the grasslands which provided an underground pantry. (Gott, 1993)

An important and common root vegetable was the yam-daisy (Microseris walteri). Major Mitchel describes a view from the Grampiens (Gariwerd) 'as a vast extent of open-downs, quite yellow with the flowers of the native yam, whose root, small as it is, constitutes the food of the native women and children, and we observed them digging in the ground for roots.'
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George Augustus Robinson, the Protector of Aborigines from 1849 described women havesting yams on the basalt plains, 'spread over the plain as far as I could see them, collecting roots, each had a load as much as she could carry.'

These grasslands also provide a variety of medicinal herbs, used for treating common injuries and ailments. ​

Vegetation on the Bellarine Peninsula before 1835
- a landscape managed by the Bengalat clan of the Wadawurrung

Louis Lane, an archaeologist who studied the Wadawurrung of the Geelong region summed up their lifestyle;

‘They developed a sophisticated and disciplined society that utilised every element of their surroundings while practicing conservation strategies on their clans-land. Their yearly calendar was marked by the flowering of different trees and shrubs and the movement of birds.’ (Lane, 1988)

The Bengalat had a permanent camp in Boronggook (Drysdale), near Lake Lorne, which they called Balla:we:in (anglicised to Bellarine). It was a place with ample fresh water, fed by permanent springs of clear ice-cold water that ran into deep ponds. These ponds were shaded by ancient River Red Gums and protected from weather extremes by dense windbreaks of vegetation. In Lane’s archaeological studies of the camp site at McLeod’s Waterhole, she described it as;
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‘A paradise for hunter and forager as well as bird and beast. Even after a long dry summer, there was abundant water for ‘Swan, duck, dabchick, water-hens, cranes and pelicans. The surrounding ridges were thickly covered with vegetation.’ (Lane, 1988)