Kathleen Springs

Hi There,

Having spent 2 nights at Kings Canyon, it was time to move on towards the ultimate destination in the Northern Territory, maybe even the whole of Australia??  If you’re not sure what that might be stay tuned for part 11 while we have a quick look at Kathleen Springs.  We stopped here while travelling onto that great destination.  Kathleen Springs is an easy 2.5km return walk through lots of interesting flora to a permanent spring.  Along the way there are remnants of old cattle yards which show its previous history and descriptive marker boards relating to Aboriginal activities here.

Below is quite a bizarre looking plant called the Orange Spade Flower, Hybanthus aurantiacus .  This is a small erect shrub to about 40cm and quite widespread although I only saw it in a couple of places.  The flowers have five petals, four very small ones and one large one shaped like a shovel!!

Here is a closeup of the shovel!

Here’s some more sea ripples, although the indigenous people have a slightly different story about these ripples.

If you remember in Part 9, we saw some of these ripples on the Rim Walk at Kings Canyon.  See below for a different take on these!

I don’t particularly want to meet Inturrkunya!!

Golden Orb Spider with its young, we get these at home as well although this one was massive!  Below we have Hibiscus leptocladys also known as the Variable Leaf Hibiscus.

It grows to about 1.5m or occasionally to 2m and is quite widespread in the Northern Territory.

Another piece of rock…

This is Abutilon leucopetalum, also known as Lantern Bush, grows to about 1m or less.

This one I think is Swainsona flavicarinata, Known as Swainsona or Yellow Keeled Swainsona.  This is a prostrate herb.

More rock!

This one is quite possibly Indigofera basedowii, a perennial shrub to 1 metre with grey-pubescent foliage with inflorescences to 11cm long.

Here’s a close-up of the flowers

Some more plants

A small creek

This one is Senecio gregorii , alson known as Annual Yellowtop, grows to 40cm high and is an annual.  Widespread throughout all states.

This is Scaevola parvibarbata a perennial growing to about 50cm, widespread on sandy areas. So there you have it, a short interlude at Kathleen Springs on our way to another great destination in the Northern Territory!

 

Cheers!