Go the Waratahs

 No, I am not a supporter of the NSW Rugby team: I do have some standards.  I am however quite a fan of the genus Telopea, and was pleased to see this flowering shrub in a neighbour's garden this morning.

It led me to wonder if the Waratah - usually a reference to T. speciosissima - occurs in Victoria.  

According to Plantnet the Southern extreme of the distribution of the plant is Ulladulla, about 250 kms (straight line) NNE of Mallacoota.  That site lists 4 species of Telopea.  Of the other 3:

T. aspersa is endemic to the Gibraltar Range  (between Grafton and Glen innes in Northern NSW);

T. monganensis occurs on the escarpment from near Braidwood (Monga NP) to  Fitzroy Falls  in Southern NSW; and 

T. oreades has a Northern extreme range in Monga NP with most occurences close to the border with Victoria.

The common name of T. oreades is Gippsland Waratah and Flora of Victoria shows its distribution in the Gippsland Region.

I have a suspicion that the sites shown reflect the places that botanists have visited (Howe Range, Wingan, Errinundra etc) so will have to do a search. 

The map in the Atlas of Living Australia pretty much matches that above, but does allow on to click on the points on the map to get good geocoordinates.  The one nearest to Mallacoota is described as "about 2 km NNW of Genoa" but as it is a preserved specimen, collected in 1885 I doubt if it is still there.  However there seem to be a few more recent (1980; 1991) records from that area so a drive towards Wangarabell seems to be in order.  If I wait a couple of weeks I will be able to do a post "The Hunt for Red in October".