This week, Rover decided that, with the weather turning cold and a little less inviting, he would like to spend some time remembering a few of his summer trips. He went back through the photographs, and discovered a few he had not used on the blog, photos of the amazing rainforest to be found at Bass Point on the South Coast of NSW. He thought this would be a perfect time to remedy that situation.
If you would like to visit Bass Point, it is located in Shell Cove, near Shell Harbour. To get there, first find Addison Street in Shell Cove and then turn into Wentworth Street. From there, take Darley Street (heading towards the coast) and then turn into Boollwarroo Parade. Boollwarroo Parade eventually turns into Bass Point Tourist Road which leads to Bass Point itself. Along the road at Bass Point you will drive through the beautiful rainforest, and there are also plenty of places to picnic, run around or explore a little.
Bass Point is a very special place. Not only is there an association with early European exploration, with Matthew Flinders naming the point in circa 1800 after his friend and fellow explorer George Bass, but the area protects one of the few remaining pockets of littoral rainforest on the South Coast. So what exactly is a littoral rainforest? Littoral rainforestss are typically seen within two kilometres of the coastline and in many ways littoral rainforests could be defined as seaside rainforests. They grow on beach sands and are bedded in soil rich in quartz sediments and often volcanic minerals, as is the case at Bass Point.
Littoral rainforests have incredibly diverse vegetation, with shrubs, dense vine thickets and ground plants often thriving together, under a dense closed canopy of trees which can be up to 30 metres tall. Due to their coastal positions, and exposure to sea winds and salt sprays, ferns are less often present and the plants which do grow often have thick and leathery leaves and/or have become tolerant of salt. Today, the littoral rainforests of NSW are a fragmented group of habitats which are now classified as endangered ecological communities, making up less than 0.6 percent of the Australian rainforests. In fact, some fear that littoral rainforests may someday be extinct, yet once they were common along the eastern coastline of Australia.