Partial construction of the Bangor Rainforest begins on the 16-17 November 2012

South end of the paddock with existing flora.

The Bangor Rainforest will begin on the south bank of the Tenterfield Creek and will wander up the bank into the paddock adjacent to it, on Carol's property. On the east side of the creek itself, the bank will be planted out only on the west side of the bank, unless I get permission from the other neighbour up the road. And the rainforest cannot cover the entire paddock either as there is a dam siren in the paddock. See photo below. Shorter bushes must be placed in that area so the dam siren can be maintained by those responsible for it being there. A work vehicle and the maintenance crew must have access to that paddock and immediate area around the dam siren. Vehicle access is essential. I won't be working on that area until probably next year some time, so I'll have a lot of time to think about coming up with a design for what sort of plants to grow in that area.

North end of paddock with the Dam
siren visible next to left Poplar tree.

Last Thursday, I purchased 40 seedlings online from the ERA Nursery: 15 trees and 25 shrubs. On Friday, 16 November I will finally receive those seedlings and can begin planting them out over that weekend. I've had to refine my research even further about creek bank plantings and now I know exactly where to plant these 40 seedlings.

Here is a pdf I found online that has helped me do my final research of what to plant where. Even though the plants in the pdf are of Queensland flora by simply knowing of similiar plants in the Tenterfield area really helps. I just replaced the QLD plants with NSW/Tenterfield plants. The layout for the plants is exactly the same as it is for Queensland. A creek bank is a creek bank no matter where it is in the world. Whilst waiting for the seedlings to arrive I will be creating a written design of the entire creek and rainforest area as to where to plant seedlings. Getting the scale and shape correct of the entire area is the hardest part. It is a huge area to cover.

The 40 plants that I have bought are:
10 x Eucalyptus grandis - Flooded Gums
5 x Eucalyptus sideroxylon rosea - Red Iron Bark
5 x Callistemon citrinus - Crimson Bottlebrush
5 x Callistemon sieberi - River Bottlebrush
5 x Casuarina glauca - Swamp Oak
5 x Melaleuca bracteata - River Tea Tree
5 x Melaleuca squamea - Swamp Honey Myrtle

My only real concern at the moment is a potential new flood that could happen over the next few summer periods, and an 8 foot cliff in one section of the creek. The cliff occurred from water erosion from previous floodings. Over time the cliff is becoming more of a serious threat to collapsing even though the creek banks are being held together by grass.


The video above shows the worst flood Tenterfield has received in 60 years. The entire creek and paddock were underwater during the flood. In fact, this video was the morning after the flood peaked, so this video shows the flood had dropped a bit. The entire paddock is prone to flooding, so any plants grown in the paddock must be flood proof, or at least strong enough to withstand a major flood in the future like this flood of January 2011. Fortunately when any flood happens the water recedes rather quickly in just a few days. Even more fortunate is knowing the fact floods don't occur in Tenterfield every single year. It may be 3-4 years before another flood occurs. With the increase of rains since October the chances of it flooding again this summer looks slim. So, it looks promising that the 40 plants I will be planting during the next few weeks along the creek will be big enough to withstand the next flood when it happens.

A few of the trees will have to be planted in the paddock itself, where the rainforest begins. I really want to begin on the rainforest area but only 5 of the trees will be planted on or near the paddock to prevent the trees from getting diseases from waterlogged roots. I might see if they can cope with periodic flooding just to see if they can survive, so the 5 Red Iron Bark trees will be an experiment. If I lose them, I'll just replace them with something else.

There is also a rabbit warren concern. Introduced rabbits live in the immediate area which I plan on revegetating, and I am just hoping the rabbits will not disturb the roots or plants of the seedlings I will be planting next weekend onwards. The rabbit warren takes up a very large area of one small section of the Tenterfield Creek, and of course, has 3 entrances. My neighbour's dog loves digging up the rabbit entrances to try and get the rabbits in it. But fortunately for me it is also snake season, and the dog does not enter long grass when the snakes are out and about. I have to be extremely careful when planting up some of these plants as I'll be entering a section where there could be Red-bellied Black Snakes and fully grown Eastern Water Dragon lizards. Removing the long grass and replacing it with native grasses is going to be a very slow process.

If you could see the scope of the area of not just the creek but the paddock in which I will turn into a rainforest, you would be speechless and overwhelmed by the size of it. In fact, it is not even a very big size in comparison to some of the other paddocks in Tenterfield. If you have ever been to Bruxner Park in the main street of Tenterfield, well, Bangor Rainforest is at least 3-4 times bigger. Forty trees and shrubs is simply not enough. I'd need at least 1,000 or more tree/shrub/groundcover/grasses, etc seedlings to cover the entire area. More to come next weekend.