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| Adventure playground for big kids. That's a rock climber three quarters of the way up at 11 o'clock |
I visited a disused quarry the other day. Truly, it was a lot more interesting than it sounds. There had been a bit of rain and Landcare had been busy, so the approaches were looking green and and almost pretty.
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| Fresh plantings |
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| A touch of green covers old traces |
Mostly though it was dramatic rather than beautiful. This is a harsh country with massive dolerite outcrops. The Aboriginal word “Boya” the name for this area, means rock and there was certainly plenty of that.
This was the place where in 1901 the giant blocks were excavated for C.Y. O’Connor’s Fremantle Harbour, which made Perth the state's centre of gravity displacing Albany in the south. One hundred and fifty families made their hessian and iron homes here during the life of the quarry, though how they would have survived the summer without aircon beats me.
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| It is still dry on the upper reaches but nature perseveres |
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| Grass Tree (Blackboy ) |
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| Tiny plants that break rocks |
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| Zamia |
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| There are magnificent views of the Perth skyline from the top |
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| Scale - the car belongs to abseilers |
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| Visual Geology lessons |
Today its exposed cliffs challenge and delight abseilers, climbers, picnickers and bushwalkers. Geologists would have a field day too. It’s a great place to see intrusions, the convulsions of the earth and weathering in action. On the ground you can see sparkling grey granodiorite, black magma, white and pink quartz and metamorphic stone like scoria. Nature battles on.
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