THE Wonga Vine with its creamy yellow tubular flowers and purply maroon throat markings is the newest addition to Peace Park in Rosewood, adding to the arboretums already established flora collection.
Co-ordinator of the Rosewood Scrub Arboretum and member of Native Plants Queensland Ipswich Branch (NPQI), Col Thompson said the Rosewood Scrub once covered Rosewood and surrounding areas.
“Aborigines once resourced the scrub for food and medicines and it was also reputed that spears were made from the [Scrub Ironbark] Acacia fusciculifera,” he said.
“Famous explorer John Oxley examined the area in 1824, then in 1829 Alan Cunningham also explored the area, describing it as impenetrable as he could not walk, ride a horse, or take his drays through it.
“The next major influence on the scrub were the Europeans who were in search of new grazing lands.
“Large numbers of squatters and graziers moved from the New England Tableland into what is now the Darling Downs resulting in the British Colonial Secretary of the day sanctioning open migration to the Moreton Bay colony in 1842.
“English, Irish and German migrants, who were recruited by John Dunmore Lang, settled from the early 1840s, then in the subsequent five decades and the scrub was mostly cleared.
“Many species of flora and fauna are as a result uncommon, rare, or endangered either locally or more broadly and it is estimated that there is less than two percent of the original scrub that still remains.”
Members from NPQI ensure maintenance of the arboretum continues through working bees, with propagation of the local species which is made possible due to the collection of material from roadside verges and private landowners.
“Today we planted the Pandorea floribunda next to an already established Brigalow tree, this will give the new species something to climb on and once established it will be a great addition to Peace Park,” he said.
