The nature of North Head
Breaking news:Not only but also:Now available in dead tree print from Amazon. Yeah, I know, but it's quick and easy,and there's also a pricey hard-cover all-colour version. The next option will be the best.A new version for tablets and mobile phonesIn early July 2022, I am about to go live with a version optimised for mobile phones, though it works quite well on tablets as well. This takes the form of a PDF, to be downloaded from Google Play, and which you can put on as many devices as you like. It has higher resolution graphics. Watch out for more news here. It will cost AUD$3.00, but the lo-res freebie (below) is still there, and it is up-to-date.Would you prefer to have this as an e-book?In August 2020, I realised that this web site, stored in my own space, was eating up a LOT of storage, and I decided to try re-creating it as an e-book. I then decided to release it on Amazon Kindle, and that's now available, but it costs $4.00. Sorry about that, because my aim was not to make money. Given my choice, it would be free, but Amazon don't distribute freebies any more. The good news, DRM (Digital Rights Management) has been blocked, so once you have bought it, you can share it There's a free version with low resolution graphics that you can have for free. Right now. Here's the link. Why is the e-book or free PDF better? You can have it with you, even if reception is dodgy, but also, it contains a lot of stuff that will eventually be added into the web site, but I need a break. The lo-res PDF has much more content than this site and takes up 12% of the bandwidth. Message ends. There is also a Facebook page for this product, and that's where you'll get news of things like the October 16 fire. |
This is a guide to understanding what you see in a lovely place. To save people time, there is a secure tinyurl for this page: https://preview.tinyurl.com/nheadnat and also a less secure one: https://tinyurl.com/nheadnat.
There are three special requests:
All of these requests are there for good reasons. The North Head area is a sanctuary, and we need to protect rare
plants and small animals. That aside, we have paralysis ticks, fox baits and fox traps, so your pet would
be at risk, as would our plants and animals, because the average pet's pee or poo probably contains as much nitrate and
phosphate as 100 square metres of our sandy soil, giving weeds an entry point.
Staying on the tracks is to protect the animals and the plants, and to protect the soil from erosion. We don't need new tracks, because we do need our sandy soil to stay put. Some of our plants are rare and endangered, but even picking a posy of weeds can cost you. Mainly though, we need to preserve a critically endangered habitat. Please just take photos! If you see people in a light blue shirts, cutting out plants, those will be trained staff, targeting weeds. If you think you see a weed, please report it, don't pull it! |
The writer is mainly known for writing books, usually about science, technology, mathematics or Australian history
or some mix of those, but for about 70 years, I have been visiting North Head, and for the past eight years or so,
I have been working there as a volunteer, doing things.
This is how I know that tourists often miss the best sights, flowers and wildlife. This personal and unauthorised collection of pages is designed to offer a proper taste of what is there. You don't need to go off the beaten track (and because we have ticks, venomous spiders and snakes, this may not be a good idea!), but you may need help to find some of the lesser-known beaten tracks, and some of the less obvious plants, animals and rocks.
Think of this as basically a blog about what goes on in a small wild refuge, some 10 km from the heart of a city of 5 million people. As it progresses, I will add more stuff about my favourite curiosities.
On the right, you can see an overall map of North Head.
During the coronavirus time, my wife Chris and I have walked these tracks almost every day, and we started naming portions of the tracks, and realised that this is a more fun way to describe things. To get to the Third Cemetery from the Nursery, you follow the Ferny Track, go up Xanthorrhoea Hill, down to Soggy Bottom, up Flannel Flower Hill, and along the Lookout Track. This required me to redraw some of the maps. but that's proved to be a small price to pay.
This leads on to three separate pages: History, Geology and Biology.
This file is http://members.ozemail.com.au/~macinnis/nhead/index.htm
The page was first created on 11 January 2019, last updated 7 September 2020.