Bridal Veil Falls - 60ft high

Bull Creek - the myriad waterfalls

the rainforest......

Bull Creek cascades

Early morning frost over Bull Creek

Mountain White Gums on the ridge

GEOGRAPHY

For a mere 100 acres this piece of land has a large range of  interesting and diverse topographical and geological features. The topography of the land encompasses mostly a shallow valley  that then transforms and cascades into a steep ravine. The boundaries include the ridge and watershed of each side of Bull Creek. Draining into Bull Creek are two other creeks, being Lehman's Creek and Menugana Creek. The source of these two streams is close by in the surrounding rainforest, they are both permanent and seemingly spring fed.  The source of Bull Creek being some 8 km up stream on the broad and flat plateau of Middlesex Plains.

RAINFALL: This area receives a rainfall in the vicinity of some 2000-2100 mm or 80-100 inches annually on over 200 days or more a year. This rainfall gradient increases dramatically to the SW towards Cradle Mountain where another 7 km away it is up to another 800 mm or 25 inches higher. Being in the path of very strong prevailing Westerlies most of the time weather from the West and north particularly brings heavy rain and sleet making for a very cool and humid climate. South Westerly winds will almost certainly bring snow any time of the year. This rainfall is most heavy in spring when the Westerlies are strongest around the spring equinox bringing extremely changeable weather - 4 seasons in a day. I

TEMPERATURE:  With the topography of the land, being a shallow valley, falling of then steeply into the Forth Valley in an East-West axis, it has a distinct effect on climate. This helps to funnel the strong prevailing winds and also in periods of cold and frosty weather it acts as a "drain" for cold frosty air of the  large Middlesex plateau. I have  noted a  pronounced  temperature inversion layer  occurs during these periods of frosty weather and there can be as much as a 8 degrees C temperature gradient  from the creek bottom to  some 250ft of 100 m above on the ridge.

Frost occurs  on about 200-250 nights a year,  in all months with a low of -4C being recorded on Jan 1, and a record low of -15C one August. In summer the nights are always cool, but a maximum temperature of 31 C has been recorded. With the elevation being at 800 m or 2700ft the ultraviolet is strong in summer and thus the air can show great temperature differentials between full sun and shade. The mix of topography, distinct Southerly or Northerly aspects, elevation,  and distance from the sea means the property holds a number of very contrasting micro climates. This is particularly apparent in snowy and frost weather in winter.

GEOLOGY: The geology of the land is also equally as diverse as it s other geographic aspects. The escarpment and plateau of Middlesex is  largely an old weathered Jurassic Dolerite capping. This forms a very rich red-brown soil that lines the creek.  Scree slopes  and cliffs of collapsed dolerite crystalline spires occur on either side of the gorge. The valley of Bull Creek appears like a fault and fracture in this cap. Cutting through the dolerite it has revealed the conglomerate rocks of a much more ancient age. The whole area of Moina and Daisy Dell was home to a number of mines during the early part of the 1900's. Even recently gold prospecting by a large company was being carried out over a large area of Middlesex. Gold-bearing quartz can be found in the rocks of the creek. The cascades forming little waterfalls climaxing in Bridal Veil then Champagne Falls are in some cases layers of harder rock that have been much more difficult to erode.
 

Frost - Menugana Falls Bull Creek

Bull Creek Cascade - summer

From the ridge looking west

FLORA AND FAUNA

 The property teems with life despite it's  reasonably high elevation and seemingly hostile environment to both plant and animal life. Of recent times Highland Cattle grazing and forestry have been the major land uses at Middlesex Plains. These land uses also helped to greatly change the flora and fauna of the area. This property was on the edge of Middlesex escarpment and surrounded by massive old growth forests of rainforest and Mixed Eucalypt and rainforest in the Forth Valley .

Luckily it was largely  saved from most of the devastation that these land practices caused. Daisy Dell was the site of a small, but famous saw milling village based there till the  50's. With the majority of timber cut out then Cattle Grazing was all that was left. This was still major use till the 90's from where it has all but disappeared excepted for the old VDL Middlesex Property and in the Vale of Belvoir. Since such time a radical change has taken place in both vegetation and fauna with the original flora and fauna regimes returning . With all the old rogue wild cattle now gone plant life is now only at the mercy of its natural predators - wallabies and wombats mostly.

FLORA: A good percentage, some 45-50% of the property is rainforest, being mytle/antarctic beech, Celery Top Pine, Sassafras, and Cider Gums (the most cold/frost tolerant Eucalypt), being the dominant trees. The sassafras occurring at lower altitudes and in more sheltered spots. Celery Top Pine being a very slow growing tree is becoming predominant in some areas .There is a good understory of ferns, particularly in the less frosty areas, native pepper, native currant and orites species. This is mostly in the northern and easter quadrants, with the west and south being largely open grassy sub-alpine woodland. This has occurred due to a complex combination of aspect, climate, ancient burning practices and topography.

The Grass Sub-Alpine Woodland consists of native poa grasslands, Cider gums, Swamp Peppermints, alpine Grevillea, orites and other prickly herbs. In the convergence zones there is a mix on the ridges of Schlerophyl woodland dominated by Alpine Ash and Mountain Ash Eucalypts and a few wattles in the warmer sheltered spots with Hakea and native Olive. The open grassy woodland has a much more extreme climate with the greatest amount of exposure to frost, snow and also desiccation by wind and UV light.

In all the zones plant growth is extremely slow. In the 10 years I have had the property I have seen Eucalyptus seedlings from Cider Gums take this long to grow to only 4 foot in height. A major factor is frost heave in winter coupled with grazing from Wallabies and Wombats. Many seedlings don't survive this harsh combination. It can be noted that with a huge range of aspects and micro-climate quite distinct vegetation zones can be delineated. On the northern slopes the mixed rainforest has a high concentration of Tasmanian Waratahs and native peppers. None are found on the mirroring southern ridge where a couple of ancient Banksia can be found. Luckily due to the harsh climate exotic weeds seem to have had little success. Thistles will momentarily flourish in broken ground but then disappear, blackberries that are abundant at lower altitudes close by don't seem to have had any success I am pleased to say

FAUNA: Having lived full time on the property for 2 1/2 years I can testify that the place teems with every conceivable form of native fauna. This area was once haunt to the famous and now seemingly extinct Tasmanian Tiger. The village across the Forth valley called Lorinna, is the Tasmanian Aboriginal name for this wonderful creature. The place is heavily populated by wombats of good size, with one living under the hut most of the time. Their territories are clearly defined with their tracks running like highways through the undergrowth and clearly visible burrows. They have an interesting habit of marking territory on high places such as logs with their strange "square-shaped" dung.

The smaller Pademelon is the chief wallaby on the forest edges with some Bennetts Wallabies being seen on the adjoining property in the more open areas. Platypus are regularly seen in Bull Creek as are the rare and endanger Glaxids - or "native trout" - these have been saved from extinction and habitat predation by the impassable waterfalls to trout emigration. Tasmanian Devils, Eastern and Tiger Quolls are regularly seen and heard at night and often come to scavenge around the campsite.

Wedge-Tail Eagles have been regularly spotted - a pair being seen every summer and a couple of years running with a chick. Black Cockatoos are a frequent site and always seen heading down valley when bad weather is brewing. A flock of White Cockatoos live on Middlesex and roams from Daisy Dell to the far side of Vale of Belvoir. Black Jays or Currajongs can be seen in there hundreds and hundreds in winter come in garrulous flocks to feast on the  pink mountain Cyathodes berry. They are more solitary in summer. Grazing by wildlife has a dramatic effect on the growth rate of seedling vegetation with the local native Cider Gum being particularly palatable to all. The only unwelcome part of the fauna is man - the ones that come to cut firewood, burn or go shooting and the dreaded March flies of Dec-Feb!
 

Alpine Ash Gum circa 400 yrs old

Cradle Mtn and Daisy Dell view

Forth Valley view to the east

HISTORY: This area was long used by the Aboriginals as a "highway" through the northern highlands of Tasmania. They passed through Bull Creek up onto the Middlesex Plains from Mole Creek and the Western Tiers or from an ochre site on Mt Van Dyke next to Mount Roland on their way West over the Vale of Belvoir to Valentines Peak and the NW tip of Tasmania. To make the crossing easier and to promote vegetation growth to feed wildlife, the Aboriginals practised regular burning of this area. The early accounts of Europeans say that grass huts by "natives" where noted in the area of Middlesex and evidence of a reasonably defined walking tracks where noted with signs of continuous burning.  When Aboriginals vanished from this area for the first time in probably tens of thousands of years a major shift in land usage took place. With this in mind one has to "re-evaluate" concepts of " Wilderness" as it appears habitation by Aboriginials could have been as long as 20,000 years.

Much of this area was then abandoned to only be occasionally used by trappers. The Van Dieman's Land Company then established "Middlesex Plains" - what they then thought looked to be a highly productive cattle grazing run. was mainly due to the land use practices used by the Aboriginals. They where soon to be disappointed. Since the 1850's the area was used for summer "Highland Cattle Grazing" - this was mixed with fur trapping and also forestry. A homestead was built at Daisy Dell some 400 metres north of the property, scant little remains of the building today. This is where Gustav Weindorfer The Austrian who found "Waldheim" and opened up the Cradle Mountain area to tourists from the 20's,  originally started off from.

It was a long hike in those days and even in the 20's took a whole day on horse to cover the 30 miles from Wilmot to Waldheim at Cradle Mtn. This road where the Cradle Mtn Road is today, marks the western boundary of the property,  is the one used since well before the turn of the century. Weindorfer succeeded in helping to get the Cradle Mountain Scenic Reserved proclaimed in 1927 decades latter followed by National Park and now UN World Heritage Area status, Hopefully in the spirit of Weindorfer this area will remain a buffer to the wonderful wilderness of the Cradle Mountain area free from the incursions of  modern man ..... Being a buffer to the wilderness now being the most finest land use it could have today and for the future
 

Daisy Dell Homestead in the 1920's

Gustav Weindorfer and Flock 1912

Tazydevilbear Updated April 99