The soil around Port Davey, Bathurst Harbour and Mallaleuca is very impoverished and such that it is, is composed of degraded quartzite rock mixed with meagre humus created from those few hardy plants that have managed a toehold in this windswept and inhospitable environment. Clefts between hills have some shrubs and even some trees but for the rest, button grass is the ‘feature’ vegetation. Areas closer and lower to the water are constantly being leached and contribute to the tannins in the water. The waterways are the colour of tea and being freshwater do not mix with seawater. The seabed is shaded by the tannin-load of the surface freshwater layer and sea life reportedly includes organisms normally found in deep ocean.
I took a lot of photos of plants while climbing Mt Beatie and found they didn’t vary much throughout the area. In fact, Mt Beatie had the best range and display of any part we explored in the SW Wilderness.
Everything was small, woody and without extravagance.
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