Kawana Walk
The Kawana Walk in the Dryandra woodland is an easy 3.3km loop trail. Along the trail you will walk through both brown mallet and kwongan vegetation.
If you look closely into the trees you might see a Golden orb-weaving spider (Nephila edulis) in its web. Orb-weaver webs have very high tensile strength and elasticity. The amount of energy a material can absorb before it fails is expressed as Mega joule per cubic metre; Golden orb-weaver webs have been measured to a toughness of 150 MJ/m3! Orb-weaver web silk outperforms many synthetic high-performance fibres.
These fascinating spiders take good care of their webs, usually repairing a disturbance within 60 minutes. If the damage is too severe they will consume the web, have a rest and then reconstruct. Looking after their web is important as it not only catches prey but can be used for storage. They commonly create a ‘food cache’ where they wrap their prey in silk and place them in a line above or below the hub.
This site is part of the Wheatbelt Science Trail and GeoTrail, you can find more information or other sites of interest across the region on the map.
The Cache
The cache is a large PVC in a dead tree stump, see the waypoints section for recommended parking. Please stick to the trail, you will be walking approx. 650m