Take a walk along the road behind the café and up the hill to see many plants in flower, including the early flowering wattles.

1. Acacia podalyriifolia [Section 126], or Queensland Silver Wattle, on the right, has large golden balls of flowers on attractive grey-green foliage. It is a fast-growing small tree which is widely cultivated in its native Australia and is also naturalised in Malaysia, Africa, India and South America.
2. Banksia spinulosa [Section 126], on your right, has large golden flowerheads held upright on toothed linear grey-green foliage. Sometimes known as the Hairpin Banksia, it grows along the east coast of mainland Australia from eastern Victoria to Cairns.
3. Westringia eremicola [Section 126], or Slender Westringia, again on your right, has grey-green linear foliage with pale mauve flowers. It is endemic to south-eastern Australia.
4. On your right-hand side, Grevillea ‘Poorinda Diadem’ [Section 126] is a tall straggly bush with many butterscotch-yellow flowers with long styles. It is a seedling selection from Grevillea 'Poorinda Leane' by Leo Hodge.
5. Eremophila microtheca [Section 302], also on your right, is a wispy grey-foliaged bush with mauve tubular flowers. It is found on the coastal region of central WA. The leaves have a strong odour that some may find unpleasant.
6. Grevillea aspleniifolia [Section 124], on your left, is a very large sprawling shrub with long linear toothed green foliage and red toothbrush flowers. It is endemic to New South Wales.
7. Leucopogon melaleucoides [Section 110] is a small neat bush with dark green foliage and clusters of terminal white flowers. It is found naturally in northern New South Wales and southern Queensland.
8. Turn right along the Main Path to see on your right Guichenotia ledifolia [Section 4], with grey-green foliage covered in masses of dusty pink 5-petalled flowers with maroon centres. It is native to south western WA.
9. Kunzea pulchella [Section 15r], on your left, is a medium-sized bush with grey-green foliage and spectacular bright red “bottlebrush” flowers.  It is endemic to the south-west of Western Australia, where it occurs on granite outcrops and slopes.
10. Go up the steps to the road and turn left. A Thryptomene sp. [Section 14] on your left is an airy bush with a graceful, arching habit covered in clusters of tiny pink flowers with darker centres on close neat foliage.
11. Acacia amoena [Section 3], or Boomerang Wattle, on your right, is a small bush with tough yellow-green leaves and golden balls of flowers. It is native to New South Wales and northern Victoria tablelands.
12. Grevillea monticola [Section 14], on your left, has spiky “holly-like” foliage with many rusty orange buds which open to small white toothbrush flowers. It has bronze new growth which contrasts with its more usual blue-grey foliage. It is endemic to south-western WA.
13. Acacia ‘Purpurea’ [Section 3] on your right has many sprays of golden ball flowers and striking silver-grey fringed foliage with a feathery texture. This showy form of Acacia baileyana is very fast-growing and tough and has deep purple new growth.
14. Homoranthus cernuus [Section 15j], on your left, has tight grey foliage with prominent red buds in twos and threes that open to a cream flower with long exserted stamens. This erect slender shrub is rare in the wild, occurring SW of Muswellbrook, New South Wales, in Wollemi National Park.
15. Grevillea iaspicula [Section 15h], on your left, also known as Wee Jasper Grevillea, is an endangered shrub that is endemic to southern New South Wales. It is a medium-sized bush with dense mid-green foliage and pink and cream flowers.

Rosalind Walcott