Budderoo National Park and Minnamura Rainforest

The next place on my list to write about was Jervis Bay, but I'm going to skip that for today and write about Budderoo National Park. The reason is, looking a the map, I'm thinking we'd do this the same day we do Kiama

I'm trying to figure out the days. We'll have five full days in the South Coast. The first few days will be a weekend, and I'd like to spend those days relaxing at the holiday park—beach stuff and hanging out. Relaxing.

Then on the weekdays, I'd like to do the exploring. I'm wondering if I have too much stuff planned for those three days. Symbio and Stanwell Park will take one day. I figure we can do Kiama and Budderoo on the same day. I really don't think looking at a blowhole and a pink post office needs to take up that much time.

I'm not completely sure we'll go to Jervis Bay. Originally, we planned to go there so Tim could scuba dive, but then later he talked about doing that near Bare Island or Hawaii instead. I'd still be interested in Jervis Bay though. I dreamed about it once--and it's white sands.

I think what we WILL skip is the dolphin cruise. Frankly, I'm not much into dolphins. They're cute, but I'm more of a shark girl. I don't think Tim and Jack care much about them either. If I'm going to dolphins, I'd rather do something like Monkey Mia. Although it seems that might be getting too touristy.

Okay, I guess it's time to start the research.

Lord Wiki, please tell me about Budderoo.

Never mind! Lord Wiki really has nothing to say. I've rarely seen Lord Wiki so speechless before.

This Kiama website has some information. It won awards in 1993, 1994, and 1995 for environmental tourism. When I see things like that, it makes me wonder. Why didn't it win the award AFTER that? Did they stop giving out that award? Did something better come along? Or have things gone downhill in Budderoo? Inquiring minds want to know.

The website says it takes one hour to complete the Minnamura rainforest walk in Budderoo; and two hours if you want to include the falls. I guess we'll see how much energy we have. Who knows....we might be so in love with the Kiama Blowhole that we stay there all day and never make it to Minnamura.

Okay. I found something good. This website has a lot of information. He'll have to take the place of my Lord Wiki today.

There are four different types of rainforests in Minnamura Falls. I have a feeling I wouldn't be able to tell them apart. You know, I don't know if I've ever been to a rainforest before. Is that pathetic? I shall have to ask my mommy and daddy because I've done the majority of my life's traveling with them. I mean we do go to places without them(like Australia) but I definitely know we didn't do rainforests on our last Australian vacation. We also go to Disney World and NYC without my parents. No rainforests there. Although Disney World does have the Rainforest Cafe. For all you rude people who say The Rainforest Cafe doesn't count, I bet you're the same mean people who'd say eating at the Outback Restaurant doesn't count as an authentic Australian experience. If the bloomin' Onion aint REAL Australia, than what the hell is?

The website doesn't give the name of the Koori group that lived there, but does say they spoke the Dharawal language. I'm guessing they were the Wadi Wadi.

I found this website with Dharawal words.

Moon = Yanada. That's pretty.

Mother= wiyanga

I like the language. It's very pretty. I'd love to hear it spoken more.

It seems early on, in the white people days, a lot of the rainforest was lost because of the timber industry. If I'm reading this right, eventually this came to an end because people found other forests to cut down in northern New South Wales. So, I think that's why a little bit of rainforests in the south remain.

The trees people were after were red cedar, and the nickname of the trees was red gold.

This website has more information about the trees. They were soft and easy to cut down. In the olden days, the people didn't have big tree-cutting-down machines. They just had axes. So, they liked a tree that was easy to cut down. Because so many of the trees were lost, it is now illegal to mess with them within state forests. Isn't it usually illegal to mess with ANYTHING in a state forest? You know that saying......Take only Pictures. Leave nothing but footprints.

Dairy became the big thing in the Kiama area. I think I mentioned that in the last entry--and the dairy farm that didn't work out so well....became an amusement park.

The first butter factory in Australia was around this area. I love butter. See, another sign of how hard it would be for me to be vegan. Although, I'm probably okay with the butter substitutes. I like butter and anything that tastes remotely like butter.

In 1896, Minnamura Rainforest was listed as a Crown Reserve. I'm not exactly sure what that means, but I'm guessing it's like a protected heritage site.....something along those lines. Or maybe it means Britain claimed the land as its own. I'm not sure.

In 1936, a man named Howard Judd became a park ranger there. The rainforest has a plaque in honor of him. He was a self-taught Botanist. I like self-taught. College/Uni is great. But I think we can learn a lot on our own, without it. I don't think you need a formal education to become an expert on something. Although, if I was going to get brain surgery, I'd probably want someone with a formal education. Maybe. Probably.

Judd did a lot of research in the forest and figured out all the tourism that was happening wasn't good for the trees. One of the things he did, to try to prevent too much destruction, was build new pathways and footbridges. This wasn't enough though, so in the 1980's, plans were made to build a boardwalk. With the boardwalk, people could visit the rainforest, but the trees had some breathing room.

The big project was finished in 1991. They not only gifted the tourists with a boardwalk, but also a cafe and visitor information center.

I'm excited about going here. Maybe we'll have a snack in the cafe. I wonder if they serve the bloomin' onion......

What would our world be like if we
knew for sure there 
was life after death, and 
we could easily talk to our 
dearly-departed on the Internet?

The Dead are Online a novel by Dina Roberts 



6 comments:

  1. Normally one would think it was illegal to mess with state/national forests but have a read of this article and it makes your blood run cold.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Jayne,

    I just read some of the article. It does make my blood run cold. I wish it was completely shocking to me. But I'm so used to hearing stuff like that. I guess because I live in America.

    Looking at the political compass website, it's really sad to me that so many politicians (even the so called left ones) are on the right.

    We really need more leftie people in power. I think the right is too much about greed.

    I do like Rudd and Obama because I think they're BETTER than some alternatives. And Rudd is cute with his earwax thing.

    But...I don't know.

    One thing I saw in the article that annoys me so much is the talk about loss of jobs. I hate when people use that as an excuse to keep a dangerous an unethical company/action in business.

    Yes, the forests might all be destroyed. But we don't want people losing their jobs, do we? Well, why can't we create jobs that IMPROVE the world?

    Why don't we pay people to PLANT trees rather than chop them down?

    And why DOES Tasmania have so many environmental controversies? I know they had the damn thing and then I read something in a book....a paper mill maybe in Burnie?

    Does it have more problems than other places or is it just reported more?

    Or maybe other places have problems, but people are less vocal about it.

    ReplyDelete
  3. That's Gunns paper mill, Dina.
    Have a read of this latest news article
    There's hope!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Jayne,

    Thank you!! My blood is feeling a little warmer now.

    ReplyDelete
  5. I love Minnamurra! it's gorgeous there

    Here's some info on what crown reserves are - http://www.lands.nsw.gov.au/crown_land/crown_reserves

    ReplyDelete
  6. mistress b,

    Thank you so much for the link!

    ReplyDelete