The upper slope of the Garden’s Flora and Fauna Reserve is occupied by Box Ironbark Forest, EVC 61, a plant association commonly found in the Goldfields region in areas with low rainfall and shallow, infertile soils on undulating ground.
Box-Ironbark forests are unique to Australia and celebrated in literature and art, inspiring Banjo Paterson’s ‘The Man from Ironbark’, Steele Rudd’s ‘On our Selection’, and Henry Lawson’s ‘The Ironbark Chip’. Extending over much of Victoria inland of the Great Dividing Range, Box-Ironbark Forest has been extensively cleared and fragmented since European settlement for pastoral grazing, agriculture, gold mining and urban development.
Eucalypts, with the common names ‘Box’ and ‘Ironbark’, specifically Grey Box (Eucalyptus microcarpa), Red Box (Eucalyptus polyanthemos subsp. vestita) and Red Ironbark (Eucalyptus tricarpa) in the Goldfields bioregion, provide an over-canopy to approximately 20 metres under which there is a dense to open small tree and shrub layer.
The Australian national floral emblem, Golden Wattle (Acacia pycnantha), Drooping Cassia (Cassia arcuata) and Sweet Bursaria (Bursaria spinosa) form part of this large shrub layer, the Sweet Bursaria being vital to the presence of the Eltham Copper butterfly associated with the site. Box-Ironbark vegetation communities are species-rich with a high biodiversity.
A review of local vegetation provides home gardeners with valuable insight to plants that may prosper in their own dry conditions. Apart from the trees and shrubs identified, this habitat includes Black Anther Flax Lily (Dianella revoluta), Wattle Mat Rush (Lomandra filiformis), Grey Tussock Grass (Poa sieberiana), Shiny Everlasting (Xerochrysum viscosum) and Trailing Speedwell (Veronica plebeia), each a good garden subject.