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Leucophyta brownii or Calocephalus brownii
These tiny bushes are on the front line of coastal vegetation growing in almost pure sand and rarely more than 60cm tall. They are very compact with branching, 'stick-like' blue-grey foliage. Incredibly resilient they grow in nutrient poor soils and facing the weather that comes uninterrupted from the Antarctic. Beautiful little rounded yellow flower heads during summer.
Native to southern coast of Australia (Victoria and South Australia) on sand dunes.
Incredibly tough little plants.
well done on the ID ! - I didn't pay much attention to the flowers you've described.
Thanks for the suggestion Alj. It's probably my fault for 'inventing' the salt bush name temporarily but I'm sure it's not the one you have found. I know your suggestion very well and it has 'real' leaves unlike those in my pic #2. I've just been short of time to research this one... will start now. Thanks again.