Fogg Dam is the remnant of project to grow rice on a massive scale on the Adelaide River flood plain, centred around the town of Humpty Doo in the north of Australia. The project, which dates from the 1950s, was a complete failure, mainly because hordes of Magpie Geese flocked to the area and ate the young rice plants. Nowadays the Dam is a much loved and well used wetland nature reserve. The following are some photos I took in 2006 showing some of the wetland habitats.
Rainforest.
Waterlilies. These are the Australian native species Nymphaea violacea.
Floating grasses. This floating mat is part of the succession process of the wetlands. Once the grasses establish on shallow water, Paperbark Melaleuca trees can germinate on the mat and eventually form wet woodland. Nowadays there is also a problem with invasive species forming or taking advantage of the floating mats and a couple of years ago the National Park acquired a floating weed muncher. It's a beast and apparently the local crocs cruise alongside waiting for one of the operators to fall off and provide lunch.
Paperbark swamp.
Swamp Mahogany Eucalyptus.
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A la cuisine hier: I made Anzac biscuits, an Australian classic.
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Update: Chantal has sent me some additional information, so I have updated the post on the Forest of Montgoger.
2 comments:
I love paperbarks and admire how Indigenous people found a way to get water of the trees during the dry season. I saw a program recently on the Australia Plus network (I don't think it reaches you in France) that looked at a very big and successful aquaculture project for barramundi at Fogg Dam. Like so many Top End things, there's a big start before the climate or other factors get to it, but this one seems to be thriving.
It would be good to have a sustainable barramundi industry in Australia. I've seen barra from Indonesian fish farms for sale in the NT which was disappointing.
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