Noel and I joined with some friends for another 'Seeking Layli Devotional'. We met at the car park of Notley Fern Gorge which is about 30 minutes drive from our home in Trevallyn.
We enjoyed a walk n the beautiful reserve. We spent almost 2 hours walking and observing the beautiful environment. We each took a great number of photos. As well as the mosses, ferns and lichens, there was a great variety of fungi to be seen if one looked very closely at the logs and stones.
The pristine forest of the reserve is similar to that which faced the early settlers of the West Tamar. About a century ago the Notley forest provided timber for boatbuilding at Rosevears (on the Tamar River) and hiding places for bushrangers.
The area was privately owned for over a hundred years and the gorge was only visited by locals who knew about it. In the 1930s, the hospitality of the Hitchcocks allowed a road to be made through their property to the gorge so that everybody could enjoy its natural beauty.
On 23 November 1940, the area was pronounced a reserve and renamed from Foresters Hill (after the Forester kangaroo) to Notley Fern Gorge, after the place of origin in the United Kingdom of one of the local families. The neighbouring farmers, the Hitchcocks and Hunts, were paid caretakers until the Parks and Wildlife Service took over this responsibility in October 1992.
Of historical interest is a large, burnt-out tree, "Bradys Tree", which is reputed to have sheltered bushranger Matthew Brady and his gang when they were running from the law in the 1820s. Flintlock muskets found nearby were supposedly theirs.
