Woodlands Historic Park
Weeroona Cemetery and Conservation Zone

Weeroona is the area labelled B and outlined in pink on this clickable satellite photo. Go To Map of Whole Park.
map legend Satellite Image of Weeroona Cemetery
back Paddock Greenvale Sanatorium Site Greenvale Sanatorium Land Sanatorium Dam Area Gellibrand Hill Woodlands Historic Park

When you enter the car park from Providence Road, Weeroona cemetery is on the left. The land to the right is known as the Weeroona conservation zone, and is not part of Woodlands Historic Park despite the sign implying it is. A gravel road separates the cemetery from the conservation zone and gives access for authorized vehicles to the cemetery and walkers to the Park.

The fence separating Weeroona from the Sanatorium Dam area of the park (area 5 on the map) was reinstated in August 2016 due to horses and trail bikes entering area 5 via Weeroona. Since the horses and trail bikes came from the park itself, a new gate has since been installed at the park end of the Weeroona access road.

Brief History

The area was part of the Greenvale Sanatorium reserve until 1992. At that time the 9.4 ha eastern portion (Crown Allotment 7B, Section 1, Parish of Yuroke) was gazetted (page 3900) as an Aboriginal Cemetery. At the same time the 12.44 ha western portion (Allotment 7A) was reserved as a buffer zone. It was rezoned conservation A, "to be retained in its natural state to compliment the adjoining Gellibrand Hill National Park" (gazette page 2886). It is currently zoned "Public Conservation And Resource" under the Hume Planning Scheme, the same zoning as Woodlands Historic Park. The road separating the two parts was originally constructed to give access to the Parks Victoria car park just outside the entrance to the back paddock. The car park was later moved out to Providence Road to reduce the workload on Park staff.

The Committee of Management for both the cemetery and the conservation zone is Weeroona Incorporated.

The Conservation Zone

Bulbine Lilies in the Weeroona Conservation Zone
Bulbine Lilies in Weeroona Cemetery Conservation Zone

The northern half of the conservation zone is a very pleasant grassy woodland of Red Gum and Grey Box with a few Yellow Box and Manna Gums. It is mostly open although there are a few dense strips of Grey Box saplings in disturbed areas. Unfortunately little of the grass is native, with large amounts of Chilean Needle Grass, Brown Top Bent, Panic Veldt Grass and Couch, as well as various annual grasses. The Chilean Needle Grass dominates near the road but there are many patches elsewhere. The Brown Top Bent occurs along the drainage line, and the Veldt Grass in shady areas. There is one large patch of Couch. Kikuyu has been eliminated except where the drain from the road enters the park. The most common native grasses are Weeping Grass and various Wallaby Grasses and Spear Grasses. There are some scattered plants of Kangaroo Grass but due to heavy grazing they are very small and impossible to find except in the wettest years when they might manage to put up a single flower head.

The plant diversity is lower than some other parts of the Sanatorium Land, but Bulbine Lilies, Chocolate Lilies and a Geranium species are very common in places. (Another Geranium species is common in the area closest to Providence Road but this one is a weed, known as Cut-leaf Crane's-bill.)

As you move south Grey Box gradually takes over. The problem of excessively dense regenereration of trees has been discussed elsewhere on this site. The young Grey Box are of varying density in the conservation zone, but certainly not as uniformly dense as in the grey box forest just the other side of the back paddock fence. There is an under-story of Golden Wattle, dense near the access road. On the ground under the denser Grey Box there are mainly annual weeds but some native species persist, including numerous patches of Common Rice Flower and also the succulent annual Pink Purslane, which has never been recorded in Woodlands Historic Park although it almost certainly did occur. Shrubs include Fragrant Salt-bush which was locally very rare (only two plants known in 2012) but which has been multiplying in recent years.

A patch of Common Rice Flower in the Weeroona Conservation Zone
A patch of Common Rice Flower in Weeroona Cemetery Conservation Zone
Dead Red Gum with Grey Box Saplings
Dead Red Gum with Grey Box Saplings in Weeroona Cemetery Conservation Zone

The grassy weeds in the conservation zone have been mentioned above. There is no realistic possibility of controlling them, and Chilean Needle Grass and Couch are likely to spread further, limited only by shading and moisture stress.

Other major weeds in the conservation zone are Sugar Gum, Early Black Wattle and Brazilian Wood-sorrel. The Sugar Gum spreads from the sanatorium access road. The Early Black Wattle occurs in a dense patch in the north-west corner, although how it got there is a mystery. Brazilian Wood-sorrel does not set seed and therefore can only spread underground by about 20cm per year. It is very widespread in the conservation zone and was probably carried in on vehicles and machinery, during installation of the pipelines for example. Soursob is another significant weed spreading from Providence Road. There were some patches of Blackberry which have been eradicated. There is a moderate amount of Boxthorn.

There is a continual influx of Serrated Tussock and Bridal Creeper from surrounding areas. Both of these are out of control in Woodlands Historic Park, and the situation is getting worse..

One of two disused power-lines into the Hospital site shows up clearly on the satellite photo above as the east-west cleared line. In 2008 Jemena removed all vegetation within about 15m each side of the line, presumably to reduce the cost of regular pruning (although it would have been even cheaper just to disconnect the line). They then replanted the area with shrubs including Gold-dust Wattle, Wedge-leafed Hop Bush and Austral Indigo. The Austral Indigo has since died out. (It has not been recorded in Woodlands Historic Park but is on the list of species likely to have occurred there.) The power-line was removed in 2013 or 2014. A water pipe to the sanatorium passes under the cemetery and the conservation zone (see map above) and is still functional. A gas pipe is believed to run parallel to the sanatorium access road.

The head of the first Erosion gully in Weeroona Conservation Zone, Dec. 13th 2018.
The head of the first Erosion gully in Weeroona Cemetery Conservation Zone

The conservation zone gets a lot of water runnoff from Providence Road, Section Road and the hard surfaces in Greenvale Reserve. After a thunderstorm water will flow down the valley for a few hundred meters before it soaks in, but with sustained rainfall it will flow all the way down the valley for some days or even weeks. There was an erosion gully near the road and another one half way down, both obviously starting as man-made drains since they run across the slope. They were small compared to the massive gullies in the Back Paddock. Volunteers from Friends of Woodlands Historic Park have turned the upper gully into a series of ponds, work done entirely by hand. Some work has also been done to stabilize the lower gully.