Off the Beaten Track

Actually you can't imagine a landscape any more beaten than this one. A bit further south from where I have been walking and into the Wyong Shire. I walked into this area on a fire trail with the usual accompanying debris by the side. Washing machines, wheel rims, bottles, paint cans etc. If it can rust or shatter you'll find it in the bush in profusion. Oh and it helps if it is not particularly damaged by fire like the rest of the environment. Even the dumped bundles of newspapers haven't burnt, while all around them is ash.

After walking for a distance I leave the track, something now possible since the fire came through. It's beautiful and liberating to walk through the trees and really feel the slope and curve of the land. None of the pungent prick, the stab and scratch, the spiny barrier the bush usually provides to block free access - there is no bush. The only impediment to my progress across the land is the frequent fallen tree and these are easily circumnavigated.

The thing I begin to notice after a while is an absence of the usual detritus. No rubbish anywhere. In general I cant avoid the rusted metal and broken bottles that litter the landscape. Now I've started to look for it and to my astonishment I find nothing. No rotor from a washing machine. No rusting car body. No soft drink can or bottle top. It's extraordinary and it feels very odd after all I've seen in the past weeks (and years).

The conclusion: no tracks into the bush = no dumping of rubbish. Simple.

I believe I have discovered an area free and clear of any human interactivity. I believe, in a haze of fantasy, that I have stumbled into some sort of bushy paradise. Has any fellow human set foot here before. Am I the first upright walking biped to navigate this zone. All evidence points in that direction. I revel in these notions for a time as I enjoy this experience. It does feels like as though I am an explorer. And perhaps I am one of the first to see the landscape here in this way at this time.

The bush at the moment, may not have the natural beauty we usually associate with our natural environment, but right now is an extraordinary time to go into the bush for a walk.

Odd Man Out

It may appear at first glance that there is indeed an odd "man" out here, but in fact it is not as obvious as you may at first think. Of course it is the darker tree with the blackened bark. Severely burnt to a char. Or is it the tree with the blackened crevice on the side which seems to indicate a hollow. This tree has actually been burnt out completely through its centre. There is nothing but an empty shell, but this tree will continue to grow and thrive in it's own way.

Is the odd tree the third image? They are not all gum trees. This third tree is an Angophora and not a member of the Eucalyptus family at all. These beautiful trees look similar to the gum trees common to the Australian bush. They also share the same habitats as many of the Eucalypts, but on closer inspection they are not in the same botanical classification.

Perhaps the fourth tree is the odd tree out due to the particularly beautiful patterning of the bark. I believe this is a Scribbly gum, it is a member of the Eucalyptus family. It is an outstandingly beautiful tree and shares habitat with all of these other specimens.

If you picked the last of the images then by my classification you would be correct. This tree tree is an outstanding specimen, it has beautifully textured and patterned bark, it has been burnt by the fire but not in an area visible in the image. It is actually an Angophora as well.

No this tree is different to all of the others because it is no longer a living specimen. The fire had gotten into the tree at the base and burnt out the roots, They were still smouldering the day I made this image, some two weeks after the fire had passed through. The tree in the last image is lying on it's side, burnt off at the base. The roots have a reasonable chance of surviving and regrowing a new multiple trunked tree, but this trunk and branches will return to the earth from which they came.

Sad yet still a beautiful and magnificent tree.