Telford Scrub Conservation Park: Ron walks some of the Limestone Coast in the South East region of South Australia

Not that long ago, the prevailing winds rustled through ancient stringybarks in the south east of South Australia. Today, it's great stands of pinus radiata that bend in the dominant south-easterly winds.

Travel across much of the Limestone Coast and you realise how much has been lost to the pine plantations and dairy farms that form a patchwork quilt of forestry and agriculture across the region.

This part of South Australia was once covered with stringybark, manna and swamp gum until most of it made way for fencing and farmland. At Telford Scrub Conservation Park, a ten minutes drive north of Mount Gambier, the interpretive signs show the few pockets of native forest that remain.

With Environment Department Ranger, Don Mount as my guide, we head into a tiny pocket of scrub that conjures images of a very different South Australia one that made way for the farmers and settlers.

On our way to the little known Forest Canopy Walk there are still signs of those who once farmed in these dense patches of scrub. This property was owned and run by the Telford brothers - who, when they finally decided to give the game away, sold this 176 hectare parcel of South Aussie bush to the Environment Department and ultimately all of us.

In South Australian terms, it's extremely small but certainly unique.

Don Mount, Environment Department Ranger: "It has high rainfall - seven hundred millimetres of rain where we're standing here now or thereabouts. As opposed to much of South Australia which is considerably less. The pressure was put on the southeast because of the good ground and high rainfall. Which makes these remnant areas like Telford Scrub really important."

It's the same stringybark that once covered so much of Adelaide and the same Blackwood that gave its name to one of our hills suburbs. Today Telford Scrub is home to a koala population relocated from overgrazed forests on Kangaroo Island. It's also a haven for different bird species and the rare southern brown bandicoot. And for the people of Mount Gambier it's the perfect antidote to the stresses of modern life with many making the short drive for some solitude among the stringybarks.

But to really understand it's charms you need to get right in amongst it on the Forest Canopy Walk - a boardwalk that takes you up and over the swampy fern country once so typical of the area.

It's a short, easy walk just long enough to warm the joints and the soul.

Don Mount, Environment Department Ranger: "A lot of people don't know it's here but when you consider around Mount Gambier there are basically dairy farms or pine forests this is reasonably close and accessible. You can come here to find a bit of soul in some vegetation."

The Forest Canopy Boardwalk is the most picturesque part of the one-point six kilometre return walk through Telford Scrub Conservation Park - about fourteen kilometres north of Mount Gambier. If you have any further questions please email info at postcards-sa.com.au

Telford Scrub
The Forest Canopy Boardwalk
1.6 kilometre walk

Telford Scrub Conservation Park
14 kilometres ex Mount Gambier

Published 15th March 2009