Ashby Family and Wittunga Botanic Garden photographs [B 70984] • Photograph
Watiparinga National Trust Reserve. Photo point 17. 1998
A view from the open cleared Viaduct section of Watiparinga Reserve looking east. After 23 years of carefully managed restoration the Viaduct section is now grassy woodland. A clump of kangaroo grass is in the immediate foreground. Neither Rocky or Baeckea sections are now visible but the Blackwood water tower still shows on the skyline.
Watiparinga National Trust Reserve with a student worker using a slasher mower
A student worker recruited from the University of Adelaide by the Watiparinga Management Committee uses a diesel-powered slasher mower to reduce the fire hazard of dead annual grasses in Watiparinga Reserve.
Watiparinga National Trust Reserve with a group of student workers setting out to work
Students from Adelaide University recruited by the Watiparinga Management Committee carrying all their gear for the day's work set out from Baeckea section of Watiparinga Reserve. A glimpse of the Adelaide to Melbourne railway line which dissects the Reserve can be seen on the right. Immediately uphill from the railway line is a track leading to the Old Tunnel and beyond is the partly-restored Viaduct section of the Reserve.
Watiparinga National Trust Reserve supports a population of the blue devil, a very rare plant
A close up of the understorey plant the blue devil (Eryngium rostratum) on Watiparinga Reserve. It is one of many locally indigenous plants with a high conservation rating now present in the Reserve since careful restoration.
Watiparinga National Trust Reserve's grey box grassy woodland
The restored grey box grassy woodland after 25 years of careful management in Watiparinga Reserve's New Tunnel section. The understorey contains a wide range of small locally indigenous species including sundews, kangaroo grass and one of the native lilies (Lomandra sp.) in the centre foreground.
Watiparinga National Trust Reserve is enjoyed by the public
A couple walk in dappled shade along the firetrack in the gully below Watiparinga Reserve's Caves section. After 25 years of careful management the restored woodland of river red gums and grey box provides a pleasant environment for visitors.