Tallarook Arboretum
The Tallarook Arboretum is a site of indigenous vegetation along the Dabyminga Creek. The winding trails and multiple picnic spots make it the perfect location for families and recreational use.
There is an information shelter, multiple picnic tables and short walking trail. The shelter provides information on the environment and varying plants of the area.
The Arboretum is an example of native vegetation, with most plants are labelled for educational purposes.
Overall it is a fairly small area with most of the creek having thick tall grass along the sides.
Access for Dogs:
Dogs are permitted on-leash.
History
The Tallarook Arboretum was officially opened by the Hon. Ben Hardman MP on April 1, 2006. On the day, three hazel pomaderris (Pomaderris aspera) were planted by Ben, Mitchell Shire councillor Robert Parker and Landcare member, benefactor and poet Ellen Koshland, to mark the occasion.
The arboretum was created by the Dabyminga Catchment Co-operative, which comprises the Tallarook Landcare Group and the Reedy Creek Landcare Group. It had its genesis three years earlier, following a generous donation from Ellen to the Landcare group to use on a project of its choice. Experience with a project fencing and revegetating Dabyminga Creek revealed a need to make our local indigenous vegetation better known and it seemed good to put the money to that purpose. The site chosen was a weedy waste on Crown land adjoining the Dabyminga Creek.On behalf of the group, Jeff Wilmot obtained permission from DPI to use the land and obtained grants for the project from Mitchell Shire and the Natural Heritage Fund.
In early 2005 planning for the project began in earnest. Landcare group members David Laurie, Jeff Wilmot and artist, Robert Hollingworth, met on site with indigenous representative and artist, Alice Solomon, to plan the layout. In April, local contractor Dave Warren was employed to tidy up the site with a backhoe, removing robinias, plum trees and rubbish, filling in the many wombat and rabbit holes and smoothing out the banks. Further works were undertaken by Landcare members to control remaining weeds like blackberries, hawthorn, cape broom, thistles, nightshade and phalaris.
With the site prepared, working bees were held throughout 2005 to construct the walking track with the assistance of another local contractor, Steve Taylor, and his bobcat and carry out the initial plantings. Plant species selected were all indigenous to the Dabyminga Catchment with a specific focus on those species important to the Taungurung people, the traditional owners. These included plants used for food, medicine, fibre and weaving, and the production of tools and equipment. Planted areas were mulched heavily with eucalypt mulch to control weeds and conserve moisture.
Further working bees were held prior to the opening in early 2006. The walking track was extended, two seats installed, a number of large rocks sited alongside the walking track and an artwork "The Taungurung Waterhole Project" installed by local artist, Alice Solomon. Landcare member, Eric Smith, constructed the notice board and installed it with the help of Mark South and David Laurie and a display featuring the plants of the arboretum was installed. Numbered poles were installed by Jeff Wilmot to assist visitors in interpreting the arboretum; later, these were replaced by plant names.
Following the opening, working bees continued through 2006. Further plantings, mulching and weed control works were undertaken and two picnic tables were donated, constructed and installed by the Seymour Woodworking Group.
The Dabyminga Catchment Co-operative continues to maintain the arboretum, meeting here on a Sunday at the beginning of each new season - March, June, September and December.
Aboriginal Uses for Local Plants
The traditional owners and custodians of the lands around Tallarook are the Taungurung people. Historically, they used the indigenous plants for a wide range of purposes. Many of the plants used by the Taunaurung have been planted in the Tallarook Arboretum.
FOOD PLANTS
Many fruits, tubers, roots and rhizomes, flowers and leaves were collected seasonally and prepared in traditional ways to provide a diverse and nutritious diet. The arboretum includes the fruit-producing plants kangaroo apple, prickly currant bush, native raspberries, black anther flax lily and various wattle species. Chocolate, bulbine, vanilla grass and fringe lilies, along with milkmaids, early nancies and yam daisies, all produce edible tubers. Roots and rhizomes of cumbungi, water ribbons, small-leafed clematis, glycines, showy podolepis and bracken are all edible if prepared correctly. Flowers from silver banksia, silver wattle, river bottlebrush, native bluebells and running postman formed part of the diet, either eaten fresh or used in the preparation of nectar-rich drinks.
MEDICINAL PLANTS
A wide range of physical problems were treated with indigenous plants. The large trees In the arboretum are river red gums. The sap was used to seal burns and mixed with water, it was a remedy for diarrhoea, as were native geranium roots. Blackwood bark was heated over a fire then infused in water for bathing rheumatic joints. Lightwood bark was used to treat skin complaints. Colds and chest complaints could be treated with melaleuca oil, river mint or common sneezeweed (Centipeda tunninghamii). Hop bush leaves were used for treating tooth ache and other pain relief as well as treating stonefish and stingray wounds in coastal areas. Various fevers were treated with smoke from broadleaf peppermint leaves or manna gum leaves as well as crushed mistletoe leaves steeped in water.
FIBRES
Plant fires were extremely important to the Taungurung for making strings and ropes, bird and fish nets, mats and basket-making. Over millennia, the best plant for the particular use had been identified and the best methods of production determined. Cumbungi rhizome fibres produced the best duck nets as the fibre was very strong and resistant to rotting. Kangaroo grass fibres, native flax and messmate bark made the best fishing nets. Strings and ties were made from running postman stems, tussock grasses (Poa species), flax lilies, messmate bark, phragmites, hemp bush and native flax. Plants used in basket-making included spiny-headed mat rush, tussock grasses, sedges (Carex species) messmate bark and phragmites. Fibre for fishlrig lines was made from prickly moses bark.
TOOLS
Woody tea tree timber was used for kangaroo spears and double-barbed spears, prickly tea tree for hunting spears and eel spears, grass-tree flower stems for spear shafts and phragmites flower stems for fishing spears. Spear throwers, or woomeras, were crafted from either cherry ballart, blackwood or lightwood. Boomerangs were fashioned from either crooping she-oak or red Ironbark. A number of species were used to produce shields Including blackwood, white Ironbark, manna gum and river red gum.
River red gums were a particularly important species in the Goulburn Valley as large sheets of sap wood were shaped and cured to produce canoes whist smaller pieces were modelled into water vessels. Manna gum burls were also used for modelling water vessels.
Important plants used in the production of clubs and fighting implements included blackwood, burgan, swamp paperbark and white ironbark. Other tools produced from the timber of indigenous species included bull roarers (cherry ballart), stone axe handles (silver wattle), digging sticks (drooping she-oak) and pegs used in stretching kangaroo hides (prickly tea tree).
FIRE
A fire-making kit was an essential survival tool for the Taungurung. Fire was produced by rubbing a drilling stick between the hands so that it rotated quickly and created heat through friction where it contacted a timber basal plate. Generally, the basal plate was made from a dense, hard timber like grey or red box. The drilling stick was usually made from the much softer flower stem of a grass tree. The third essential was a fine, dry tinder to coax flame from the heat generated by the friction. This was generally made from the fine, fibrous outer bark of stringybarks or messmates.
SAP
Gum from a number of plants was used not only as a food source (silver wattle, black wattle, golden wattle, manna gum) but also as an adhesive, a gap filler and a medicine. The leaves of grass trees produce a waterproof resin which sets hard. This was used to cement stone axe heads to handles and also spear tips to spears. Gum from silver wattle was mixed with ash to make a waterproof paste to fill holes in bark wood vessels. Sap from cherry ballart was used to treat snake bite.
OTHER USES
Plant extracts were added to pools or streams to stupefy fish and make them easier to catch. The crushed roots of austral indigo, and the leaves of varnish wattle were both used for this purpose.
Photos:
Location
31 Main Road, Tallarook 3659 Map
