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Alan speaks in a very symbolic and esoteric manner in some parts of his books. Although they can be read anthroposophically, passages speaking of Atlantis, archangels, gods, etc. do not need to be taken literarily to be meaningful. The more you read, the more you will realize he uses many different religions to express ideas in a symbolic manner and not in a religious manner. His writings are not religious. In some places his writings are meant to refer to religious events in a historical way. In some places he is using religious figures (from Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, Paganism, Ancient Roman and Greek Religions, etc.) in a symbolic manner. However, at no point is he promoting a specific religion or speaking from a religious point of view.
I have kept the writing as close to one-hundred percent original so you will also find that he speaks of Australia often and some spelling or manners of speaking may be cultural. Any words I have changed are presented like this: <word>.
Also keep in mind that these books are written by a Waldorf teacher with decades of experience who also studied with a Steiner student himself, so he speaks to an audience that is dedicating their lives to the Waldorf method without exception.
Because of this, all of his views are not reflected in the Earthschooling curriculum and not all of them may be ones you want to embrace or are able to use. In all of Alan Whitehead’s writings the opinions are his own and may not align with Earthschooling or Waldorf Books. In some cases, we will be updating some of these chapters in the future with additional and/or updated information.
Ultimately, however, as I read through these passages I find I can distill wisdom from even those paragraphs that do not resonate with me.
We invite you to read with an open mind and heart and with eagerness to learn and discuss…
MUSHROOM TO MISTLETOE
Plant & Earth – Class 4 – Main Lesson
“Okay, I feel a fool doing this, but here goes – ahem – Oh Plant world, lift your verdant veils!” The Class 4 teacher was confronted earlier by the daunting task of preparing for his Plant & Earth main lesson. This is part of the Sciences, or Physical body, strand of the main lesson stream; the Feeling unit – the Life Sciences or Biology.
He had studied a small mountain of botany books, and had a fair grasp of the Natural Science point-of-view; but it was the deeper knowledge provided by a Spiritual Science that he knew would nourish the children’s souls – and ‘strengthen their ideas life’, as Rudolf Steiner advised.
So the teacher had followed the Biblical injunction – ‘Ask and ye shall receive.’. Ask who? Ask what? Against his every rational instinct, he had decided to go to the source. In this case it was a tranquil clearing in the rainforest not far from the school. he ‘asked’ again, eliminating even more worldly detritus from his mind, as he meditated on the Mysteries of metamorphosis (as first explored by Goethe) – a delicate green veil hanging over the face of innocence that is Plantdom. He looked up into the canopy beseechingly, but saw no one.
“Not up there silly – down here!’ The teacher looked down in puzzlement.
“I… I’m sorry, I expected to be addressed from on high.” The teacher found himself face-to-face with … a Fungi He hadn’t noticed it before, sheltering as it was behind the log on which he sat. It was creamy white, and looked like a fairy city of tiny spires and minarets. Its voice was childlike.
“So ;you’re up to the ole 4th Class Plant & Earth main lesson eh? I hope you remember to keep this ‘Earth’ association, and not slip into a cold and intellectual exposition of plant physiology. This mistake turns more children off botany than any other.
Fungi’s voice strengthened with confidence, after all, this was the first time she’d ever spoken to a human “The cold, so-called objective, approach turns more children off botany than any other. 10-year-olds still think holistically; they want to see the magical plant world as an integration, as containing Being even – like me!
Sorry to slip into the subjective – anyway, the analytical process of studying stamen, pistil and so on comes later; in a Plant Physiology middle lesson in Class 6 actually. So the first rule is – as laid down by Rudolf Steiner – don’t bring the plant into the classroom, by definition removing it from its environment – from the earth.”
“Surely a pot plant is okay – a plant is still in the earth?” queried the teacher somewhat sententiously.
“What? And they call me infantile! You fail to grasp the implications of ‘earth’ – it’s the whole earth which supports the plant; rain, sky, topography, geology – stars even!”
“Okay, I get the message. I suppose I’ll have to take the old Aspidistra outside…”
“Don’t be silly (boy, I’ve never actually talked down to anyone before, this is fun!), I was not referring to decorative pot plants, they have their own human-connected karma; rather to objects of study. You schoolteachers take everything so literally – in manifesting Steiner’s fragmentary indications into the modern classroom, get to the essence – the spirit of his words – rather than the letter.
In this main lesson, the object is first of all to present an imaginative overview of the plant world as an academic subject; then to visit the plants in their life-supporting environment. This unit is a great excuse to get out of the classroom. For instance, when you’re studying my – the Fungi’s – particular classification Order, the Thallophyta (‘first shoot’), you might visit a nearby mushroom farm.”
“So you’re the 1st Order eh? The unicellular group I read about, turning up in the fossil record in the Archeozoic period.” The teacher’s voice betrayed a hint of admiration.
“Yes indeed; as a comparison with human development, we Fungi relate to the child in its first year, evolving under the influence of the (present0 planet Saturn. That’s why both babies and we are basically just ‘heads’.”
“The skull is the region of Saturn in the human being. Little babies are ‘head’ beings; we are too. Archeozoic? We prefer the occult term, Polaria. This is the first epoch of the Earth incarnation – my, that was a long time ago…”
“I read that some of you Thallophyta folk are a bridge between the mineral and the plant worlds? Viruses and Diatoms for instance are silica-based unicellular ‘plants’; due, more than anything else, to their behavior. In form they are like little crystals – but containing life.”
“This is so; we don’t like to admit that the anti-social group, the Viruses, into our company. But they have to fit somewhere I suppose? We’re happier with Algae and their – at least green in most cases – ilk. Don’t forget to tell the children that we initiated the first ‘seed’ in the plant world. Well, not seeds as such – spores really. In fact with a gymnastic leap of the imagination, we could be conceived of as wholly seed – a truly Saturnian expression. (The Roman god Saturn Was a seed sower – his Saturnalia a sowing festival.) But it’s time you moved to the Jupiter plants.”
“Where are they?”
“You’re sitting on them.” The teacher leapt to his feet, and saw that the old log on which he had rested was covered in a spongy cushion of dark green Moss. The slightly-flattened Bryophyta folk recovered their composure, and their mini-forest profile, before speaking.
“No harm done, we spring back pretty well’ although those bits you were picking off will have to be re-grown. Now, what are we? Stems right! If the Thallophyta brought seed into the plant world, we Bryophytes contributed ‘Stem’. Yes stem; that’s all we are really – thousands of tiny stems (with spores of course). We joined the Evolution Train at the Hyperborean Station – you’ve probably heard of it as the Paleozoic.
We are a little-considered plant group really, but a study of some of our more bizarre members, like Sphagnum and Spanish Moss, will ignite the children’s interest.”
“Do you think so? Maybe if I put them into a story. Although I still don’t think they’ll make it into a movie!”
“Very funny! – We mosses evoke, through our verdant tresses, life, not so our cousins the Lichens.
And speaking of beards; we, more than any plant, justify the occult observance that plants are the hair of the earth. Just as your hair is an accurate statement of the condition and make-up of your life body; so the plants depict the health, or otherwise, of the earth’s etheric body. Oh, and there is a certain ‘moss’ quality in the development of the child in its second year – little stems they are too, hee, hee. You can sit down now; and no picking remember!”
“Thank you.” The teacher gingerly sat back on his Bryophyte cushion and looked around expectantly.
“My turn is it,” drawled a large Tree Fern on the edge of the clearing, “I’m the 3rd lot; the Pterydophyta.”
“Jeez – you’ve all got terrible names!”
“Okay, the ‘fern’ then – that word means ‘feather leaf’ – but we can ‘leaf’ that – ha, ha, ha. (The ferns are apparently quite droll – Ed.) Anyway, we came to earth in the Mesozoic (‘middle animal’) geological era – Lemuria to you. My ancestors light the bulb on your desk light – that’s right, it’s powered by a coal-burning power station.
That coal was laid down in the Carboniferous (coal is carbon) period – part of the Meso! Oh my antecedents here were giants; growing in endless bog-lands. As they died, they sank; and due to lack of oxygen, formed great beds of carbon in its various forms, like oil and coal.
Have you ever noticed how, qualitatively at least, we ferns are like 3-year-olds? No? Well it’s in the larynx really – if old-but-young Mushroom is a ‘head’, Moss a ‘neck’ (the spinal system – the ‘stem’!), then we ferns are ‘chest’ plants. The laryngeal system is actually the top section of the chest. Our contribution to evolution was the leaf. There is a perennial – a nice botanical term – relationship between the chest and the leaf. Both perform the miracle of gas exchange in their owners. How about that?!”
“Oh very impressive – and very lovely leaves you have too. Perhaps I can take my children to a Tree Fern Valley to give them a hint of Ancient Lemuria – and of your floral regency. This would be easier in New Zealand; the fern is their national emblem; and many of their forests 9what’s left of them!) are boggy and spongy – as you said. Your Mars factor can be seen in your assertive stance, yes?”
There was a puzzled look on the teacher’s face as he thought that, even though the mushrooms, mosses and ferns evolved through Polaria, Hyperborea and Lemuria respectively, the whole group of spore bearers, the Cryptogamae (‘secret seed’), realized their apogee in Atlantis. He mused that these kinds of facts are invaluable in providing an invisible background to lesson content, giving the presented images higher reality – but he must remember not to go boring the class with lectures on esoteric botany! Of course much of the material would be elevated from the pedestrian with the magic of story.
Class 4 is the middle of the primary 7 years; a time when story and empirical fact attain balance in the classroom. And speaking of 10-year development, this is the year the children are incarnating into their Sentient Soul faculties – like little Egyptians they are, Class 4 is the ‘epochal’ year of Ancient Egypt, they who developed Sentient Soul.
How apt then to study the ‘senses of the earth’, as Rudolf Steiner calls the plant world. And that is indeed what they are; sense organs relaying information to Mother Earth about matters of both simple and galactic dimension. The latter could be the plant’s relationship to the zodiac and planets; or the forces raying down from sun and moon. In an unconscious way, this is also happening in the souls of the children…
“When you’re ready! Baked a deep voice impatiently; this time from very high up indeed It was towering Bunya Pine. “I’m a Sun plant; the first of 4 to evolve in the Cainozoic geological era – Atlantis to you. Mind you, this unfoldment you’re hearing today only related to the material evolution – spiritually, in a creationsense, I am a product of Ancient Polaria.
Indeed the whole plant kingdom was created even earlier, as a kind of omni-potential matrix, on Ancient Moon. That’s why we all only have 2 ‘bodies’ at our present stage – a physical and etheric. We have only existed on two planetary incarnation, Moon and Earth. Actually, as is the case with all material phenomena, we were extruded by you lot. ‘A sun plant?’ I hear you protest – here, have a shower of sun-bolden pollen if you don’t believe me!”
The teacher brushed himself off, Bunya certainly was an acerbic character. “you, er, are a Gymnosperm aren’t you? Meaning ‘naked seed’. So what do you contribute – apart from pollen (a glorified spore!) – to plant evolution?”
“We gave the world the root.”
“Hang on – ferns had roots before you!”
Bunya seemed to take this slight on his integrity in poor spirit, but he decided not to drop his version of ‘Fat Boy’ on the unsuspecting teacher – not yet. “This is not so! The so-called roots of ferns, mosses, etc. are merely holding devices They don’t draw sustenance from the soil. The roots of we conifers (‘cone bearers’) take in nutrient-in-solution directly through our roots; ferns do it through a modified leaf, absorbing their nourishment from the air itself – that’s why they’re usually in moist areas.
And what of our reflection in the development of the human child? The 4-year-old, with its illumination of nascent heart/Sun forces is a walking, talking pine. Indeed many of the conifer forms are the ascending triangle; an expression of earth will – ascending to the Sun! Quite the opposite from the next great Order, eh Palm?”
A stately Bangalow Palm swayed appreciatively as a cheeky breeze ruffled her orderly fronds. “I’ll say,” she replied in a musical, sing-song voice “Gymnosperm and I are the Yin yang of the plant kingdom. If he is the ascending triangle, I am the descending– coming from the sun to earth actually. As such I express that planet which hides under the skirts of the Sun, Occult Venus. I am comparable to those little Venus Beings, 5-year-olds, with their descending consciousness focused on the Venus region, the upper abdomen. Oh how full of my soul quality, Wonder of the World, these littles are. I love watching them do the eurythmy sound of Venus, the palm-like ‘ah’.
We are a kind of esoteric symbol of duality, Gym and me, with our ascending and descending natures, being paired often through the ages – like in that remarkable Sun/etheric emblem, the Star of David for instance. It has the ascending and descending interlaced triangles. Then there’s that old Anzac Day favorite, Lest WE Forget … dum de dum … dominion over palm and pine …”
“You palms, grasses, lilies and the like are – let me see, Monocotyledons yes? So what contribution did you make to the great tapestry that is the plant world. Venus was the Greek Aphrodite, meaning foam … no that couldn’t be it?”
“Flowers – flowers! snapped Palm, slipping out of her customary goddess of love role for a moment. “Gymno had pollen, but his issued straight out of the cone, with no flower parts developed as such.”
“Of course – sorry. You Monocots are a diverse lot; but you all have something in common (so my botany book says) – you have the first true flowers, constructed from the geometry of the hexagon. You’re right, conifers always seem so… so incomplete …!!”
At that moment a terrible crashing sound catapulted the teacher off his log – crash – splinter – bang – plop!!A cone – ‘fat boy’ – as large as a football, had crashed down quite close, and was now sunk in the soft sward of the clearing – a Bunya cone! “Incomplete indeed!!” growled Bunya from on high. Somewhat rattled, the teacher resumed his chat with Bangalow Palm; making a note not to insult other plants – who knows what they can throw at you!?
“We Monocots, epitomized by the lily, are emblematic of the Post-Atlantean, or Quaternary, epoch – up to the time of Christ that is. She who preceded the Jesus child, the Madonna, is often depicted holding – yes, the Eucharist Lily (or her Annunciating Angel at least).
The Madonna is yet another variation of the Venus Mystery. You will take note that I’ve mentioned a non-Australian flower. I hope you don’t fall into the error of only presenting native flora in this unit. An important mission for exotic plants in Australia is to enliven the poverty-stricken etheric life of this wide, brown land. So a healthy combination of native and introduced plants will nourish the children – and the Continent! What do you think Dicotyledon? 9There are so many!) Who’s represent your diverse lot?”
A heavy silence hung over the sun-warmed clearing. Had the teacher’s clairaudience dimmed? Were there no Dicots around? He wandered about till he spied a Lilly Pilly tree groaning under clusters of magenta-pink fruits.
The teacher picked a handful of Lilly Pillies and munched away. “Where are your manners!?” said a matronly and fruity voice from somewhere within the thick foliage. “The most important outcome of any Life Science lesson is veneration – love and gratitude for those life-forms which, in sacrifice, support Man and his evolution.”
“Oh dear, I am sorry. I just thought these were spare – they are very refreshing, if a little tarty. But am I to assume that you have evolved the higher fruit forms? Those that culminate in that ageless esoteric symbol, the Apple?”
“You man. Bu the way, some people like ‘tarty’; with fruits it’s a matter of taste really. When you deal with me and mine in the lesson, you might arrange a Fruit Feast, so that the children can literally taste the different geographic regions of the world. Rest assured, the fruits will most likely be Dicots. – except a few strays like bananas and dates.”
“Now let’s see; you must be a Mercury inspiration. Perhaps that’s why green fruit give you a pain in the lower gut – the realm of Mercury in the human being. And the mercury age of the under-7 child is … the 6-year-olds! Little ‘quicksilvers’ too they are to be sure. Mercury is a sanguine planet, expressing in fruits as sugar – or sugars more like it. The world would be a sadder place without your sweet and juicy harvest.”
“Why thank you – what a nice young man! Yes, we’re recognized by, not a 6-fold structure, but a 5 – section an apple and see. This living numerology is an indication of our Post-Christian pre-eminence in human affairs. Five is the number of the etheric archetype of man – of a re-ascent into Spirit. This is slow at first to be sure, but gathering pace as the centuries unfold. (We plants are patient beings – not like you lot!)
This is an evolutionary phase, supported by the fruits of the earth in their ever-expanding variety. Mercurial intelligence enters the equation in the quest for new fruit forms (mainly we Dicots!) through selective cultivation and hybridization. World sugar will separate, distillate, cooperate and percolate to serve the spiritual progress of man, and his fellow-travelers in evolution.”
Lilly Pill fell silent – but then gave a final addenda “That’s it then; you can go back to school and prepare a fabulous main lesson on the 6 plant types…”
“Not so fast!” growled a voice from somewhere? Quite near?! It was a tone pregnant with menace. “You always try to avoid the Moon plants don’t you?! Just like the botanists; they only concede 6 Orders – yet there are 7 planets yes? Are you embarrassed because, like 7-year-olds, the psychic focus is on the region of the genitalia? Eh!!?”
The teacher stared hard at the spot from which the voice seemed to emanate; but all he could see was Lilly Pilly.
“Ha, ha, ha – fooled another one!” chortled Mistletoe! He it is who can imitate just about any host tree he chooses – remaining invisible to all but the trained naturalist. “Yes, the botanists always conveniently lump me – and all the other ‘Moon’ plants, parasites, carnivores, etc. – in with something else.
If the Dicots represent the foreseeable future of mankind; we foretell a distant state of evolution indeed. Although, as Rudolf Steiner says about us, we Mistletoes performed a vital role on Old Moon. This future element makes us puzzling to most people – and infinitely fascinating to children!
How edifying is all this fruit talk to people, with their Cornucopia mentality – and how revolting are our sap-and-blood-sucking habits – ha, ha, ha! Observe some of our more spectacular members, like the Venus (a misnomer if ever there was one) Fly Trap – or the Pitcher Plant – or even the humble little ant-eating Sundew! Even the Australian Wild Cherry is one of us – though cleverly disguised. And what is ourcontribution to plant evolution you might ask?”
“What is your contribution to plant evolution?”
“I’m glad you asked – why it’s soul! We have managed to bond the first stirrings of soul into our otherwise life-dominant being. And just as old Thallophyta is, through its lowest form, the Viruses, a bridge between the Mineral and Plant kingdoms, with our seminal soul, albeit in a primitive, carnivorous state, we will place the last plank across the bridge to the Animal.”
Mistletoe peeped out from Lilly Pilly’s thick foliage – ah, the teacher could see him now, or his small but bright red, fluted flowers at least. This delegate of the ‘Moon’ plants continued. “Yes, we have a kind of nascent astral body – the moon is the astral planet you know. A plant is a 4-fold being like yourself; with an ego, astral, etheric and physical body. But all ‘members’ of your being are fully incarnate – with we plants, only the last two are earth-bound. Our astral body lives in this Moon Realm jus alluded to – and our collective ego dwells in the Mansion of the Sun – the spiritual Sun that is. So there!
But we Carnivores et al have embodied a certain amount of astrality, and in small measure, have become animal-like. As such we have big plans; we won’t remain remote and obscure forever – have you read our favorite novel, Day of the Triffids!? Or War of the Worlds perhaps? No” mistletoe’s voice betrayed disappointment at the teacher’s literary ignorance, but bravely went on.
“Never mind – anyway, as ‘soul’ plants we can advise you on lesson presentation; one which will appeal to the thirsting souls of your children – Art. That’s right, clothe your botanical facts in art; like painting, drawing, poetry, music and so on. This way their fertile imaginations (a Moon faculty!) will be fired, and their cooperation and enthusiasm assured.”
“The Moon realms eh? Regency of Reproduction. So that’s why people kiss under the Mistletoe, or the Golden Bough as you’re known in occult circles. I thought the plants were supposed to be the Kingdom of innocence?”
“And so we are!” – “Yes, don’t listen to Mistletoe!” – “…not a plant at all really – just a parasite, or worse …” – “… disgusting habits that lot have. The Rafflesia looks – and smells! – like a rotting corpse…”
The teacher left the now-twilit clearing to begin on the construction of the content temple of his plant and Earth main lesson; one with strong walls of empirical data, built upon a truth-based spiritual foundation. Ah, and the whole edifice will be crowned with the golden dome of artistic expression. He picked a sprig of Mistletoe and walked away.
“You never know when you’ll need it!” he smiled.
SEVEN PLANT PAEANS
Gnarled Bracket Fungi
When the frost of the night,
Rests on twigs, crisp and white,
I emerge as the moon rises high.
But by morning I’m tired,
And I then like to hide.
In the shade
From the sun’s searching eye.
Sphagnum Moss
Welcome to my mossy paths,
Wade in shallow water baths.
Wander through my mossy dells,
Hear my tinkling water bells.
Wisper in my soft, green ear,
Stories mosses love to hear.
Giant Tree Fern
Shadow lovers you may linger
In my ferny, frondy shade,
As I unfurl my spiral finger,
To the smiling sun who made
The gentle Springtime pass away.
Tomorrow is a summer’s day.
Friendly Cypress Pine
Seven Sisters in the North,
Travel round and round.
An eagle soars into the West,
On wings that made no sound.
A traveler in the far-off South
Bears a Cross of Light,
From a silvered eastern sea,
Until he’s lost from sight.
From my pine top high,
I can see the whole sky,
Whether twinkling stars,
Or the warrior Mars.
Lonely Pandanus Palm
I am only a lonely Pandanus Palm,
The East Wind is my friend.
He whispers to me when seas are calm,
But roars when storms descent.
He tells of a sky-hiker of light,
Upon a lonely quest,
Each day this traveler smiles on me,
As he journeys East to West.
Red Bottlebrush
My fingers flaming crimson fire,
Laugh with the sun as he rises higher.
In my scant grey shade, you are welcome to stay,
But the Sun still sets on this longest day.
Mystés Mistletoe
Up here in the leaves I hang on tight,
In my protean mask, I scorn the light.
A golden bough of zodiacal power,
I reign alone on this longest night.
Australia’s First Garden
In July 1788, a mere 6 months after white settlement in this hard but fair land, Governor Arthur Phillip had 9 acres of wheat planted just east of the creek that even today trickles past the kiosk in Sydney’s Royal Botanic Gardens. Hence the name for the area, Farm Cove. The place, variously, has been under continuous cultivation ever since.
The Botanic Gardens (Botanic Gardens? A tautology surely – what other kind could they be?) contain much more than beds of Australian and exotic flowers and trees with unpronounceable names; both history, and a wealth of wildlife, can be found hiding in shady corners and arching canopy.
A look in at the Visitor’s Center, an historic building in its own right, built in 1889, reveals lots of learning material, books and displays – they even have a plant identification service for those who can’t tell a rose from a daisy.
The ghosts of the deep past whisper to those who will listen, from a history preceding even ‘our’ arrival over 200 years ago. The tidal areas around the world’s best harbor, especially where the waters ring the Botanic Gardens, was an Aboriginal sacred site. Here the initiation mysteries of the Kangaroo and Dog Dance, with its leaping lines of hole-nosed warriors, were violated by gawking convict and red-coasted marine. That is until the dancers hopped into oblivion before the relentless creep of ‘civilization’.
Our early administrators were, to some extent at least, visionaries; they put aside large tracts of land for parks and recreation. The ‘A Class’ Gardens was one of these – and it is large, all of 30 hectares. ‘A’ Class? Apart from its excellent range of mature plants from all over the world, it is the home of the National Herbarium – a treasury of plant material, information and research. A spin-off of this focus is the guided-walk program; a free service to which you can tag along if your timing is right, or arrange a specialty walk for a group – like a school! It sure is more fun to learn about botany when you can see, touch, smell – and even taste – the real thing. If such a visit turns you into a plant freak (or you’re one already!), you might join the Friends of Royal Botanic Gardens – apart from getting n free to various facilities; like those weird, glass geometric solids comprising the Tropic Center, you meet people with similar interests.
But what about all this wildlife? Depending on your luck, or alertness, you can see many different animals in the Gardens – especially birds. Kookaburras, cuckoos, wrens, waterfowl of many kinds, crows, wagtails, honeyeaters, penguins … penguins? Yes, Fairy Penguins are sometimes spotted basking on the sun-spangled surface of the harbor along the great sandstone wall snaking its way from Mrs. Macquarie’s Chair, right round to the Opera House.
Then there are reptiles, like tortoises, lizards of various kinds – even the odd snake!
Perhaps the most visible, and spectacular, wildlife display is the large colony of Grey-headed Fruit Bats which periodically roost in the rainforest section of the Gardens.
The staff, after a string of humiliating failures, found one simple but effective methods of evicting them. The bats cause considerable damage to the rare palms and other exotics; and as the staff say, it’s a botanical, not a zoological, garden. Anyway, for several hours each day, a big drum would be pounded in the bats’ period of deepest sleep – noon to mid-afternoon.
Even though the interlopers enjoyed gilt-edged accommodation, with harbor views, a global banquet, close to schools and public transport …! They chose instead a peaceful day’s sleep, and left. Actually the bats only known predator is man – and paradoxically it’s man who has given them ‘protected species’ status!
Perhaps the population-exploding mammals returned from whence they came, like East Gordon on Sydney’s North Shore – or Wingham near Newcastle. Population-exploding? Numbers grew from hundreds to thousands I just a year or so as word got around about the salubrious City Garden’s Apartments!
The Megachiroptera dormitory contained one of the Garden’s living-history monuments; its tallest and one of its oldest trees. This is a towering Queensland Kauri planted in 1847 – an impressive old-growth forest in sight of the Harbor Bridge!
Of course with such abundant plant life, the Gardens are also home to a rich and varied insect community;’ like butterflies, bright-backed beetles, lacewings and … crabs – well they’re arthropods at least, as are insects – ditto the foreshores! A pilgrimage to Australia’s First (and best) Garden is a joy for whatever reason you go – to observe plants; to munch lunch in a dappled ‘jungle’ – 5 minutes’ walk from a different kind of jungle – one of concrete! Or to just have fun – but be careful, who knows what’s lurking in the undergrowth?
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