The Premier is a little wet

 This is not about Desperate Dan nor our Glad, but reflects the condition of the Premier Track.  That is I believe the official title of the track which runs under the power lines off Genoa Rd, before rejoining the road near the turn off to Gipsy Point.  We usually call this the Powerlines Track, but I thing 'Premier' is the official name.  We didn't do the whole distance, just the first 2.3 km to the junction with the Miners Track.

The end is that junction.  The numbered points are a couple of other track junctions.  1 is the intersection with the Sheepstation Creek Track (the finish of our previous walk in the project) and 2 is where a turnoff from Genoa  Rd joins in.  

The first half of the walk back is pleasantly downhill but the second half of the walk out is not too steeply uphill.  Frances checked some directions using the compass app on her phone revealing also that we were at 140 m above sea level.  My phone agreed exactly and checking Google Earth on my computer suggested 138 m (or 140 m) depending on the precise placement of the cursor.  I find this level of agreement gobsmacking, especially considering that 20 years ago my GPS  was absolutely hopeless at elevation.

This is the major vehicle track on the Southern side of the clearing.  Someone has obviously had great faith in their bog driving skills (and their tyres).  I would have gone for plan B.

Plan B would not have involved the track in the middle of the area!

Keeping to the theme of landscape here is a view of Genoa Peak which the Compass showed to be NW of our end point.  (Gabo Island was almost exactly due East.)

On to plants.  This is Thelionema umbellatum (surprising declension but that is what Flora of Victoria (FoV) and iNaturalist (iN) call it).  FoV describes it as rare, so I have entered it to iN.  An expert on iN has explained that there is a white form of the more common Thelionema caespiosum which has the flowers above the leaves and FoV comment of perianth > stamens for that species  So I have changed.

This was the most colourful patch of Epacris impressa I have seen this year.

The next three images are all of a 'bottlebrush' of which several specimens were seen close to point 1.  I am calling it Melaleuca sp, but can't get a good match to anything listed by FoV for that genus in this area, so have handballed it to iN for opinion(s).  The opinion is M. squarrosa - a good fit for habitat.

This next one was a worry.  In the field it looked white (see second image), although the first image appears to have blue tones.  iN gave it as Dampiera stricta and an observer has concurred with that, commenting that it is an unusual white form.

There is a lot of Banksia serrata in the area on either side of the clearing: the natural vegetation there seems to be a grass tree plain with Bansia overstorey and a few eucalypts.  This looked like a new flower - rather than one which was caught unopened by the fire

Most of the cones looked like this, having spat forth their seeds.

Much debate over Acacias, especially my memory of the leaf shape of some we saw a couple of days ago.  I concluded they are all A.ulicifolia.

A hope for the walk was seeing some signs of Leek Orchids (Prasophyllum sp.).  We ended up seeing 4 emerging leaves of the genus which I took to be a good sign given the amount of regrowth probably hiding many other specimens.

The final image is a Pomaderris.  I couldn't match this to anything in Joy Grieg's book - not surprising with this genus which seems to spark heated argument over detail between experts in the genus - so have thrown it to iN whereJackie Miles has named it as P. lanigera - which is in Joy's book but under forest rather than heathland.