A small band of hardy walkers ambled up the ridge under the guidance of Wendy Rainbird and Jennie Widdowson, volunteers with ParkCare, to see about 40 different plants now flowering.

And the brisk winds didn't deter too many of them.

''There's a nodding blue lily, which really is nodding in this wind,'' Ms Rainbird said.

ParkCare is a partnership between the ACT Government and community volunteer groups, formed to care for local nature reserves and Namadgi National Park.

Mrs Rainbird and Ms Widdowson were instrumental in setting up a signposted walk around the much-loved Farrer Ridge.

It was the day before the January 18 firestorm in 2003 when they had finished the words and pictures for nine signs and just needed approval to proceed with them. ''Then all hell broke loose,'' Mrs Rainbird said, of the firestorm.

''And everything was black. You can see remnants of that still today but you also see the amazing recovery of the Australian bush. And the dynamics of it, because it changes.''

Among the walkers yesterday was Iranian refugee Iman Shirinia, 29, who is living in Canberra while waiting on a protection visa. He spent 14 months in the Christmas Island detention centre and is enjoying being out from behind closed walls. ''It's fantastic. I like nature. I grew up in nature,'' he said.

Ms Widdowson said some of the bush had recovered since the firestorm nearly nine years ago, but some had not.

But the wildflower walks, which have been held for at least four years, also show the bush at its most beautiful and delicate, even if some of the giants have gone.