Tree of the month: Brown Kurrajong

Androcalva fraseri (Brown Kurrajong)

Its botanical name was formerly known as Commersonia fraseri. It is most obvious in areas of disturbance as a pioneer plant. It is usually a small shrub from 2 to 4 metres, but occasionally it reaches 6m. The juvenile leaves are more rounded and look more like grape leaves. There are no other obvious examples in the Reserve.

The photo was taken of a Brown Kurrajong at 29 Stanwell Avenue, where Council bought a house and then pulled it down in the late 1990s, so it was a disturbed area for quite a while. After the 2020 bushfires, there were large patches of Brown Kurrajong growing all the way down the South Coast. Some have continued to flower, but not as prolifically as they did immediately after the fires.

Banksia Bush Care at Stanwell Park Reserve

We have put up a new 300-square-metre deer fence in the western extremity of the reserve, which used to be mowed by the owner of the adjoining property at 1 Station Street, but has now been left by the new owners to regenerate.

Stands of Cheese Trees (Glochidion ferdinandi), Mutton Wood (Myrsine variabilis), Guioa (Guioa semiglauca), Celery Wood (Polyscias elegans), Murrogun (Cryptocarya microneura), Breynia (Breynia oblongifolia), Cabbage Tree Palm (Livistona australis), Trema (Trema tomentosa) and Sandpaper fig (Ficus coronata) are coming up.

Without a fence, most of them will be eaten by deer, and those the deer do not like to eat may be destroyed by breaking off trunks or ring barking.

We have also planted within the deer fence, Black Plum (Planchonella australis), Plum Pine (Podocarpus elatus), an Illawarra Flame Tree (Brachychiton acerifolius), Bangalow palm (Archontophoenix cunninghamiana), Yellow Pittosporum (Pittosporum revolutum), Unscented Rosewood (Synoum glandulosum) and Native Bleeding Heart (Homolanthus populifolius). We are also awaiting a supply of other species of Illawarra rainforest trees to add to the diversity.

When the weather permits, Bill Harris and I will start removing the last clumps of invasive weeds from the western extremity of the reserve.