The Wandering Arborist

Sean Freeman

I seem to be travelling a lot up and down the State, mostly for work sometime for myself (and that ends up being trees, if not paying work) so i thought I'd start a thread where I could put up some of the better spots I get to, and share some of the beauty of our State with everyone else....

Last two days I visited the Tablelands of Nth Queensland, going back to Kuranda after visiting there 15yrs ago...well in the intervening time the Cairns Council have erected a wonderful walkway amongst the trees, it is not the Kew Tree Top walk but I think its magic...I love the fact visitors cantouch these trees with easse the whole thing is ramped (wheelchair friendly) and darned long..must have cost a packet $$.

Beginning of the walkway


One of five mini platforms along the way


Reach out and touch


Reach up and touch


Barron Falls...in the dry season


Barron Falls railway line, rainforest behind, gorge in front.

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OutofMytree

Wow.

newguy18

Priceless.nuff said.

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JohN Dee

Seriously nice pictures there Sean. I love to go on bush walks, but I'm yet to walk through a rainforest Will soon though!

Lol, you better not start country hopping any time soon, otherwise you'll have Jim upping ya for the rent on the title : Globe trotting Arborist :P.

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phill ellison

awesome pics there Sean, I bet the barron Fall would look impressive in the wet seasons

Eric Frei

Some day I'll visit that, put it on the list.

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fatkoala

I had the wonderful experience of working for Skyrail ( a cable car through the rainforest) when It first opened. Nothing like pruning back vegetation from a work cable car, lot easier than climbing. Thankfully this only had to be done at the entrace and exit to the platforms rest of the time your way above the canopy. Where is that walkway is it in Kuranda on the railway (train) side ? If so it ha changed a lot since I did some stonework on the track there as a fresh faced kid out of Uni. There is an old power station below ground beside Barron Falls. The falls is also good fun to adsail/rappel of during the dry

Sean Freeman

Yes the tree top walk runs in a zig zag fashoin from the road to Kuranda station (or rather platform). Here's where it emerges on the platform side..




Yes it would be, I have never been there in the wet since it is about 5hrs from where my family live, and driving that far in the wet season is not my idea of fun!...however i did track this down....


I have never ridden it but would like too read the EIA years back and wass very very impressed with the construction methods and impacts.
Here's one I took of the sky rail...

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caldera

it's amazing country up there...just spent a few months cycling around getting to experience the rainforest and some of the critters that live amongst the trees~

i like the name of this thread, as it's something i'd like to do (cycle around the earth climbing trees and studying rainforest canopy ecology)

here's some shots from around atherton tablelands, which is mostly 'mabi' rainforest (of which only 2% remains)

mabi means 'Tree Kangaroo'... i spent a week on a lumholtz tree kangaroo wildlife sanctuary were orphaned tree'roos are being re-integrated back into the surrounding forest (mostly there mummas were killed by cars or dogs)

these macropods know how to climb trees !


dorathy~18 month female tree roo


Geoffrey, 4 year old Male Lumholtz (Dentrolagus lumholtzi)





such beautiful country ~ shame we had to cut so much of it down

caldera

oh and i think they are opening a new canopy walk in Palmerston National Park (southern edge of Atherton Tablelands, near Milla Milla)

I reckon it's great for people to see the Canopy eco-systems up close

the rainforest centre north of the Daintree river is also worth checking out..

Sean Freeman

The Mabi forest was a remarkable ecosystem, sadly there is very very little of it left, but there are some amazing tiny remnants scattered about the tablelands...look here to learn a bit more.. Mabi Forest

I have visited some lovely tiny spots of remnant veg matching the list of primary mabi species.

Eric Frei

Found this too, very interesting. And a PDF.

Mabi Forest

Attached Files

mabi-forest.pdf (1.23 MB, 42 views)

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Sean Freeman

So just a quick post (I'm on my way to O'Reillys, yes I'll post pics later)

Drove to Grafton early yesterday morning, managed to get there despite some of the worst downpours I've driven through since working down here..reminded me of monsoon up north!!!!

Anyway....Grafton what a gem, if you get the chance do go there in the next three weeks..::: Jacaranda Festival - Grafton :::? Australia's Oldest Floral Family Festival

I felt like someone who would go to Kyoto just befoer the cherry blossom festival....the trees have only just started to flower, but as I hope you'll see the streetscapes are magnificent, typical of older Australian country towns...wide (vry wide) road shoulders, open swales (tree friendly and WSUD before any keek ever came up with it!!!!)

View along Pound St near the railway


Just round the corner of Pound and Turf St


Some of the trees are out already!!!


See what I mean about the open swales and the wide shoulders (Oh if only the planners at New Farm had been willing to defend the space for the Jacs there!!!!)


Turf street about to explode into colour


View along Dobie St shows the replanting and replacement planting being carried out...someone has their mind on the future

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Sean Freeman

More to come (got to go O'reillys awaits)...just want to add please note ....NO KERB AND CHANNEL.... again WSUD (Water Sensitive Urban Design) before we managed to screw it up!

caldera

looking forward to seeing your O'reilly's photo's ~ that place is magic, i look forward to returning home early next year...

Sean Freeman

Sometimes (often for me) when you go to a place you've not visited before you find things you never expected to find, this was the case in Grafton...went there for the Jacarandas as is my want but found this listed avenue of 16 Figs Ficus microcarpa.

Now these trees are huge, a bit taller than the fig avenues in Hyde Park in Sydney, and thanks no doubt to the deep aluvials alongside the Clarence river, as you'll see hardly any impacts on road or driveways...of course no kerb and channel....

The Fig Avenue along Kent Street






A closer view of the root plates


And the area between the trees and the houses...there are houses and driveways on both sides...no visible conflicts at all.


It really blows me away to come across things like this avenue, I was hoping a local would come out and chat to me about the trees but it was raining, and I guess they are used to folks taking snaps of trees in Grafton....and with good reason

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phill ellison

that look so awesome, they must be a few years old looking at them trunks

Done it

Great pics Sean, and a great letter by the way

Kuranda sure has changed since I was there.

I've always liked Grafton, someone sure knew what they were doing there with the figs, I haven't seen them for a while,

Sean Freeman

Phill, Grafton was established in 1855, the historical buildings remaining today date from the end of the 1800's and the beginning of the 1900's, thinking logically and being conservative about the time estimations, buildings first then tracks and roads then thoughts of improving civics shade plantings etc... I think you could safely estimate the figs were planted at the turn of the century 1890's-1920's, so around 100yrs old.

They have clearly been very heavily cut in the past, much of what is now scaffold structure is regrowth. I will go back (next year at the latest) and I will knock on doors (if needed) to find out more.

JayD

Great pictures,Sean,These figs are to the north of the bridge if memory and my directional sence serves me correct.
I was in ore of this avenue of figs about 10 years ago.

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Eric Frei

It's awesome to see thought out plantings.

Coming from Adelaide to Brisbane the first thing I noticed was the difference in the way trees were planted in avenues ... or the lack of it.

Having travelled the Adelaide, Melbourne, Sydney route in numerous ways over the younger years I recall many towns have fancy avenues and trees ... the autumn colours were always spectacular. Recall going for drives just for that alone.

Lamington forest has some huge trees, brushboxes that'll blow your mind, spend a week there wandering no worries. Some of those walks are long AND STEEP!

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Sean Freeman

Yes Lamington is a very special place, quite different to the other Rainforests I have visited, didn't have the time to do much of a walk (and to be honest my body won't let me do the more strenuous walks)

So first up here is the drive up....

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Sean Freeman

As I said had precious little time so here is the tree top walk, it was fun they chose to built a suspension bridge structure so it moves around quite a bit, especially when there are numerous kids on it!!! Good height though in places.

The boardwalk into the forest


Beginning of the bridge sections


A bouncy group of kids


The views from the bridge




The section down...

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Eric Frei

What's the matter with "your body", last time I met you, you seemed fine to me, skinny bugger!

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Sean Freeman

Knee trouble combination of footy and climbing, but I'm working on it.

Sean Freeman

Some pics from O'Reillys of posessive trees...

This is MY rock...you can't have it.....


Hang on sloopy!!!


holding on by my finger tips!!!

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newguy18

Wow,awesome pics Sean.

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OutofMytree

We think it 'mazing....

Sean Freeman

Have had a couple of pleasant jobs recently, this is one trip to Macleay Island in Redland Bay.
Here's the location for you (so long as you know where Brisbane is!)


The trip out from the mainland


Another one of my soft spots is for mangrove, the resiliance of these trees to a most inhospitable environment never ceases to amaze me, and the role they play in supporting much of what we take for granted living on the coast is critical



Of couse when we decide that we want to live on the shore front the trees tend (not always) to loose out.



The interior of Macleay has some lovely big Eucs, not many veterans but good sized trees, all the houses I saw were on stumps, lifted off the ground, which of course is great news for trees.

This portion of the SE corner of the state has been transformed in the last 20yrs used to be 90% agriculture, but now there is very very little farming going on in comparison to what went before; much of the good argicultural land has been sold and subdivided for housing.

The Local Authority has somewhat stricter controls on the islands, but the pressures for development are significant. I know of I could I would live here (though I might want the highest spot on the island for my house sea level change and all!



A few more pics to come.....

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Sean Freeman

More Macleay....

Some of the roads look like the Romans were here too!!!


Views aren't bad eh?






Some of the mangrove has some size about it, I missed the really big ones (was looking out the other side!)


Nice place for a weekender....

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