Nuggerty Nature Reserve

In the hills south of Tuena, along Junction Point Road, is Nuggerty Nature Reserve (1225h).  Perhaps more so than Gillindich Nature Reserve, this Crookwell Reserve is closely associated with gold mining and fossicking along the Tuena Creek. Gold mining is a hard slog, and for those that succeeded at Tuena, there were hundreds that left disappointed. One, destined to become Registrar of the Ulludulla Court, stumbled into an ants nest trying to escape the mines back to Sydney, and barely escaped with his life.

After heavy rain, the deep gorges and creeks of the reserve have returned to life. It has been a couple of weeks since rain fell, but Nuggerty Creek Falls are still trickling and exotics and natives are in bloom.

Here, a field of Early Nancies.

And on a rock shelf, Glossodia major (Wax lipped orchid).

On the edges of the reserve, a gravel pit hosts pests of a different kind: Cape weed, Bathurst burr and Pattersons curse.

Back in the gorges, scrub wrens and swamp wallabies are in evidence.