Genoplesium baueri also on Nowra - Braidwood Road.

Further to my most recent post about the lovely Turquoise Parrots, I can now report that in a quiet period on Saturday afternoon, when the "Turqs" were resting amongst the trees, and while I was resting my hip, Alan Stephenson went looking along the grassy verge of the Nowra-Braidwood Road, and found a few specimens of Genoplesium baueri - the "Brittle Midge Orchid".

Genoplesium baueri on Nowra Braidwood Road

This species is listed on the NSW Threatened Species list as "vulnerable". It has been nominated for EPBC Act listing, by Alan, but so far, it has not yet been "listed' in the Federal environmental protection system.

Genoplesium baueri on Nowra Braidwood Road

The reason this lack of Federal environment protection is important is because of my last line comment on the previous blog post: 

• Alan has just learnt that the local National Parks office is preparing to "slash" the roadside verge in this area, which would be bad news indeed for the Parrots which are feeding on the low grasses there which are happily seeding at present. Lets hope that move can be delayed for a few weeks at least.

Because I had not got around to mentioning the Orchids, I did not refer to the threat posed to the Orchids by roadside slashing. Of course, when the Orchids are in flower or when carrying any seed capsules, then slashing could well be "terminal" for a small colony of these Endangered Orchids.

Lets hope the Nowra office of NPWS can be persuaded to hold back on their plans for roadside verge slashing along the Nowra-Braidwood Road, for a few weeks, to allow these important "threatened species" to at least complete their reproductive phase.

There are so few of these Orchids known to exist that Australia does not have any "to spare". The biology of this species is such that it does not appear to recover well from disturbance. It has a habit of simply dying out if disturbed.

Decisions about such matters are probably less likely to be considered important for relatively drab little flowers like these.

Let us hope that the "pretty Turquoise Parrots" can help attract enough attention to get both these Endangered Species protected from such a simple threat as "routine roadside slashing". At the very least, surely the 600 metres where both these Orchids and Turquoise Parrots have been identified could be spared from slashing.


After all, it is the same Department (currently the "NSW Office of Environment and Heritage") which has "Listed" both these species as threatened species, which currently poses a threat to their survival - within the Parma Creek Nature Reserve.

The irony of this situation surely cannot be allowed to go without comment.