Tullawallal

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ARRIVING at Binna Burra early in the morning, a cool southerly wind was blowing hard under overcast skies making for a strangely cold summer's day - never would I have thought I'd need to wear a polar fleece top in summer.. I headed down into the precipitous Coomera Gorge over 5 kilometres away before returning to the plateau and following another trail to the 950 metre high summit of Tullawallal.

In amongst the boulders scattered over the summit was a ring of Nothofagus moorei - locally known as Antarctic beech. This was once a dominant species covering vast tracts of Gondwanaland over what is now Australia, Antarctica and South America. Now these can only be found in a few pockets of high altitude rainforest in Eastern Australia. This is the northernmost stand anywhere in the world.

Although this is a small stand of relatively young trees aged perhaps a thousand years, it stands in a circle surrounding a small clearing once occupied by a parent tree. The trees stand leaning outwards in a ring somewhat like Stonehenge. The strong wind caused the trees to make a loud deep creaking sound as if they were talking to each other.

Blog from today:
Tullawallal

Superblog from today:
Lost World Volcano of Gondwanaland