112 Kelly, From Healesville to Mount Donna-Buang. [^Ociob^r*' 



FROM HEALESVILLE TO MOL'NT DOXXA-BUAXG. 



By Reginald Kelly. 



{Read before the Field Naturalists' Club of Victoria, \ith Sept., 191 1.) 



On hearing of the proposed ^■isit of the ^Ministerial party to 

 Mount Donna Buang on 26th June last, a horseback party was 

 hurriedly arranged in Healesville to ride through from that 

 to^^^l to meet the ^isitors on the snow-laden summit. The 

 official party went from Warburton — a stiff chmb of about 

 four miles : the Heale5\-ille trip, by present route, though less 

 steep, is about fourteen miles. About 8.30 a.m. I left Heales- 

 \Tlle ^^^th the first troop of 42 horsemen, led by Assistant 

 Forest-Ranger Bums. It was a cold, sharp morning, with 

 every promise of a bright day. Each man carried his o\\-n 

 pro\'isions and a pannikin. 



The Don road, which we traversed as far as the Badger 

 River, is well known to many of the members of this Club, and 

 those naturalists whom I had the pleasure of accompanying to 

 the Badger Weir on the 31st January. 1909, will remember 

 where we crossed the stream half way up from the road. Here 

 the river was a raging torrent after the recent floods. The 

 sloping banks were laid with corduroy, but it was loose and 

 sUpper}-. Manv of the horses baulked, plunged, and caused 

 confusion, but all crossed. The track from this point went 

 up the Badger vaUey for a short distance, bearing away 

 graduallv to the right till out of the characteristic gums and 

 wattles of the flats. These principally consisted of Eucalyptus 

 vvninalis, E. gunnii. with a few E. ohliqua and E. amygdalina. 

 and of Acacia melanoxylon and A. dealhata, \vith here and 

 there a Hedvcarya Cunninghami and Pomaderris apetala. 



Lea\"ing behiud the vegetation of the river flat, a bridle path 

 goes east by south along the lower undulating slopes on the 

 east side of the hiUs, over which goes the road to Malleson's 

 Look-out. To the casual obser\-er these slopes were simply 

 waA-ing fields of bracken, Pferis aquilina ; but that it was once 

 densely timbered is soon learned by one who leaves the track, 

 for this bracken is a tangle of dead boughs and tree-tnmis. 

 These, too, at times stretch across the path, and imfortunate 

 is it for him whose horse cannot negotiate them, for so full of 

 obstacles and pitfalls is the way that he must go over or go 

 back. Towards the end of the fields of bracken, and through 

 the last mile of it, the track ascends, slightly ^^inding. up a 

 stiff pinch, difficult to negotiate, as one must keep on the track 

 to lead one's horse, the sides being too tangled for walking ; 

 the horse naturally rushing, and the leader naturally pufl&ng. 

 the animal runs him down. Fortimately, my Ught weight and 

 my horse's strength saved me from this dilemma, for. after a 



