What’s hatched at Banksia Bush Care
Acacia maidenii (Maiden’s wattle) This is the third wattle found in the Stanwell Avenue Reserve. It has long thin leaves, and bark that is grey, fawn or brown and is rough with irregular fissures. Its pale-yellow flowers are on two or three...
What’s hatched at Banksia Bush Care
Many parents have told me their young children love our giant nests because they think they have been made by dinosaurs, and they want to know when the ceramic eggs will hatch.
I decided it might be an idea to excite these young imaginations further by making dinosaurs of different kinds emerging from the eggs. The hatchling dinosaurs have now been fired and are exhibited in the nests running parallel to Stanwell Avenue on the left-hand side of the Stanwell Avenue to Kiosk track.
The 14 baby dinosaurs are: Avacerotops, Bambiraptor, Beipiaosaurus, Brontosaurus, Cryolophosaurus, Iguanadon, Kritosaurus, Ouranosaurus, Pterodactyl (2), Stegosaurus, Tyrannosaurus Rex, Velociraptor and, finishing off with a survivor of the Jurassic, the Crocodile.
We have put up “Do Not Touch” signs because we have had some Humpty Dumpty accidents where children have dropped the eggs onto something hard, and we have not been able to put them back together again. We would ask parents to make sure that if, despite their discouragement, children do pick up eggs, they be put back in the centre of the nest the right way up. In that way, the exhibition can continue to be a source of fun for children, as well as for everyone else.
Tree of the Month: Acacia maidenii (Maiden’s wattle)
This is the third wattle found in the Stanwell Avenue Reserve. It has long thin leaves, and bark that is grey, fawn or brown and is rough with irregular fissures. Its pale-yellow flowers are on two or three cylindrical clusters, like those found on Acacia longifolia (Coast wattle). The leaves, however, are quite different. The seed forms a twisted legume from 50mm to 150mm.
The deer do not normally attempt to ringbark Maiden’s wattle or attempt to eat it when the plants are young.
There are 28 Maiden’s wattle in the reserve, most of them on the north entrance to the circle from Stanwell Avenue.
Read Kieran Tapsell's Guide to the Banksia Bush Care Site and the 2508 District News cover story, published in July 2021.
