Sketches & Snapshots: Pine Ridge Conservation Park
“The world is full of magic things, patiently waiting for our senses to grow sharper.”
~ William Butler Yeats
Pine Ridge Conservation Park in Coombabah, Gold Coast, Qld is sadly one of the last protected Wallum remnants, south of the Sunshine Coast. Due to housing and urban development, this last little pocket, sandwiched between Gold Coast houses and main roads, is all that remains of what would have been spectacular coastal, native, Wallum vegetation.
If you live in Brisbane or the Gold Coast, you may have driven past this unobtrusive park many times, not even realising that it’s there and how culturally and environmentally important it is. In this quiet, little pocket the vegetation changes so rapidly. You can go from walking through green forests of towering pines, eucalypts and flame trees with an understorey, prolific with sedges, ferns, vines and small wildflowers growing along the trail to incredible ancient Wallum Banksia (Wallum Aemula) tree forests, with their twisting limbs, cork-like textured trunks with huge Wallum Banksia flowers in varying stages of growth. Growing under these amazing trees, you’ll find grass trees and other wallum shrubs and grasses.
Depending on the time of the year that you visit, you’ll always be surprised by what’s in flower and the incredible diversity of native, Wallum flora. At the time of writing this, one section of the park was awash with the intense yellows of the many varieties of pea bushes and guinea flowers, as well as the small, sometimes easy-to-miss purples and lilacs of native lilies, sprouting out from the yellow profusions of pea bushes. And if you come at other times of the year and look ever so closely, you may be delighted with sightings of tiny, little orchids which are so easy to miss if you walk too quickly. At other times, the Myrtles, including many species of tea trees (Leptospermum) blanket the open heathlands in a strong show of whites and pale pinks of growing buds, on trees and shrubs.
This is truly an everchanging landscape, and I come here often. For me it’s a magical place to escape to and I feel really connected to its’ energy. It just continues to inspire me and brings me great solace, peace and joy.
As far as nature journaling goes, this particular spot provides so much inspiration, and I’ll never capture all the magnificence of Pine Ridge Conservation Park, or any of these spaces. But I can maybe catch just a glimpse of it and document what speaks to me in the moment.
What I do know is that ever since I’ve started on my nature journaling journey, my curiosity, drawing and journaling skills, and my knowledge of plants and nature, has significantly deepened and blossomed. And so has my love of the Australian natural landscapes.
How about you? If you have started nature journaling, have you noticed any changes at all, whether small or significant? If so, I would really love if you could share that with me via email or a chat via phone or in-person.
Until next time, please enjoy…
…good things.
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