Here's just two shots, I've got heaps
of one of the oldest heritage trees in outback Qld still alive
Now this is a bit of a hobby horse of mine so I'll try to stick to info on the photo and if anyone wants to we can run a long thread about all kinds of issues that spin off being envolved in trying to protect and maintain these older citizens.
I went out there with Steve to write a report for Flinders Shire Council on the tree health risk management options etc
DSCF5620i.JPG DSCF5625i.JPG
The tree is
Euc microtheca and is important to NW Qld white history since during the search for Bourke and Wills this tree was blazed as a trail marker for both the Landborough and Walker expeditions. Blazed in 1861, now to choose a tree for a marker you'd have to pick one that stood out so conservatively 40yr old tree 1861 - 2006 gives you 145yr old tree min.
Now before I get laughed out by our lucky Euro Arbs with their 500+yr old trees
To have a tree of at least 150yrs in an area intensively cleared for grazing over the past 200yrs is pretty damn amazing.
Also this tree has had nothing good done to it in all that time in fact its had limbs lopped, wounds painted, hollows filled and trunk injected. This boy is one tough ombre
DSCF5628i.JPG DSCF5630i.JPG
The outcome of the report was advice to put in place a small fence to deter people from entering under the canopy, both to protect roots and protect people from potential break outs. Mulch the entire protected area with mature woodchip from trees of the same species and the associates that grow along the creek banks out west, to re-inoculate the soil with beneficial fungi and micro organism for the soil food web..def no fertilizers. There's also a large lever arm not really visible on those shots that will over time fail as is a hazard beam but if the fencing is up and seating provided away from the target zone, with good informative signage re the tree, history and life cycle of older trees...no probs.
Really hope to get back out to Hughenden this year and check up on the old boy, after our rain he'll be laughing at all the sad fools he's seen born live and die through his years.
There's a pub in the town that serves really great German beer..dirt cheap groups of Euro backpackers bus through and stay there every year.
Or at least that what Steve told me, I was too busy writing notes:happy097
SF