Go gold!

Take a short walk on the rail trail! It's Wattle Day, and gold's flowering where gold was found on Pennyweight Flat just of south of Beechworth's Mellish Street.

The community's planted a mix of locally-found types along the trail, chosen from the thousand-plus species that grow across the country.

Wattle was first included on the Commonwealth Coat of Arms in 1912 and 𝘈𝘤𝘢𝘤𝘪𝘢 𝘱𝘺𝘤𝘯𝘢𝘯𝘵𝘩𝘢 proclaimed Australia’s national floral emblem on 1 September 1988. National Wattle Day was proclaimed in 1992.

Species endemic to the North East and High Country include 𝘈𝘤𝘢𝘤𝘪𝘢 𝘱𝘳𝘢𝘷𝘪𝘴𝘴𝘪𝘮𝘢, 𝘮𝘦𝘭𝘢𝘯𝘰𝘹𝘺𝘭𝘰𝘯, 𝘪𝘮𝘱𝘭𝘦𝘹𝘢, 𝘢𝘤𝘪𝘯𝘢𝘤𝘦𝘢, 𝘱𝘢𝘳𝘢𝘥𝘰𝘹𝘢, 𝘣𝘶𝘹𝘪𝘧𝘰𝘭𝘪𝘢 and 𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘯𝘪𝘤𝘪𝘧𝘭𝘶𝘢. Illustrious colonial botanist Ferdinand von Mueller, associated with Beechworth across his long career, described these in his 𝘐𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘰𝘨𝘳𝘢𝘱𝘩𝘺 𝘰𝘧 𝘈𝘶𝘴𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘭𝘪𝘢𝘯 𝘴𝘱𝘦𝘤𝘪𝘦𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘈𝘤𝘢𝘤𝘪𝘢 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘤𝘰𝘨𝘯𝘢𝘵𝘦 𝘨𝘦𝘯𝘦𝘳𝘢, published 1887-1888 in Melbourne.

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IMAGE: Rail trail wattle. Jamie Kronborg