Big blue as rangers use paint to stop theft of bumper waratah bloom

The disappearance of crimson waratahs from Sydney’s national parks has sent rangers reaching for the spray paint to turn the spectacular native blooms blue, in a bid to deter a rising number of wildflower thefts.

Sydneysiders converging on bush tracks during lockdown have admired a bumper season for the wildflowers, which are the state emblem of NSW, as swathes of hundreds of blooms emerged around the city’s urban fringe.

Heathcote resident Linda Williams noticed flowers were being snapped off (in foreground) waratah plants that are blooming in the Royal National Park in Sydney’s south. Credit:Linda Williams

“I’m 75, and I’ve been walking in this bush a long time, and I’ve never seen them like this,” said Lloyd Hedges, a member of Menai Wildflower Group in Sydney’s south.

“There was one plant that had 18 or 19 flowers on it. It is the peak I’ve seen for waratahs.”

A surge in light-fingered bushwalkers ripping the flowers off their stems and pinching them from bushland has triggered warnings their removal could damage fragile populations of the plants, which are a protected species.

Heathcote resident Linda Williams noticed some flowerheads, which can span 15 centimetres, had been snapped off soon after pale buds began erupting into bloom along a track in the Royal National Park in August.

“I don’t think it was anyone professional because they weren’t cutting them, they were just rudely taking them.

“It’s because everyone’s doing so much walking. You should see that track of a weekend, it’s like Pitt Street.

A waratah painted blue in Ku-ring-gai National Park. Credit:Chelsea Mazzini

“They are just so prolific this year, there are hundreds of them. You just walk along in awe, they’re beautiful.”

The National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) has received numerous complaints from bushwalkers who had noticed the flowers were vanishing from bushland in the Royal National Park area.

“This is the first year the National Parks and Wildlife Service has experienced this level of waratah removal from the park,” a spokeswoman said.

“The flowers have mostly been taken where the park is adjacent to the local suburb, which could indicate an impact from more people taking ‘COVID restrictions’ exercise in the areas.

“Waratahs cannot be picked anywhere in the wild in NSW and considerable penalties can apply to anyone caught.”

Rangers and volunteers have been spraying the flowers with blue paint to deter people from pinching them to display at home. Credit:Linda Williams

Commercial supply chains for waratahs were well-established, which meant people were likely picking the flowers to display at home, the spokeswoman said.

She said rangers and volunteers had been spray-painting the underside of the stems with non-toxic blue paint to make them less attractive to looters.

Dr Brett Summerell, who is chief botanist at the Royal Botanic Gardens Sydney, said the vast areas of waratahs flowering this season signalled areas that had been destroyed by fire, some in the Black Summer blazes.

“Usually 18 months after they’ve been burnt you’ll see lots and lots of waratahs and then over the next five, or six, or seven years the numbers produced each year will diminish.

“It takes some time for the plant to grow and produce the flowers, a lot of energy goes into producing those flowers.”

He’s spotted “spectacular” displays of the flowers in parts of the Blue Mountains that were scorched by the Black Summer fires.

Dr Summerell said picking waratah blooms prevented the plant reproducing as the flowers turned into pods which released seeds to germinate. This in turn would prevent new plants from growing and reduce genetic diversity.

“It’s important to let them go through their full cycle normally, but especially so now that they’ve suffered this big impact from the bushfires.

“The best thing to do is go and have a look at them, but just to take a photo and not be tempted to take off the flower.”

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