Along “Fire Trail No 5”, via Sunnyside Ridge Road, is a beautiful landscape caught in the tug-of-war between motorised recreation and conservation.
Like many parts of the Gardens of Stone area, it has a series of majestically shaped and intricately varied pagodas, the profiles of their protuberances and “gargoyles” standing out against the sky. Plants special to this region include the yellow Pagoda Daisies (Leucochrysum graminifolium).
[Photo:Neil McGlashan]
A visit during June 2015 was greeted with a chorus of male lyrebirds assembled at various points around the slopes, each vying with the others and choosing a different sound to imitate than his competitors.
Open forest with stands of several Eucalypt species rolls down to a twisting pagoda-lined waterway, flanked with ferny overhangs.
This remains a site that proves the Gardens of Stone are worth protecting.
© Don Morison