The long anticipated visit by Bill Gammage, author of “The biggest estate on earth – how Aborigines made Australia” & friends was a memorable event all round. Unfortunately, one of the trip instigators, Coonamble farmer/ CMT fancier Paul Underwood & wife Vronnie, couldn’t come due to illness but the rest made the long trip from Canberra or Goulburn with only minor mishaps. Octogenarian Canberrans, Bill & Jan Gammage + Ian & Jennifer MacDougall with Jenny’s brother Stuart Hume & wife Anna from historic “Garroorigang” on the outskirts of Goulburn came to see the trees. The young’uns of the mob and SxS chauffeurs were my friend & CMT knowledge keeper Sandra Winsor and her partner Roger Buckland from “Widgeewoo” Gulargambone. My niece Holly Currey came from up the road on Sunday & reduced the average age of guests down to umm approx. 68 … just saying …
With 1 full day & 2 half days to spend CMT gazing we looked at the Paleo channel & the Big warrambool trees as well as paying our respects to the ancient matriarch & some special CMTs just to the east at the Avon overflow (on the Little warrambool). The weather was perfect & the mozzies mostly kept to themselves, so we picnicked in the paddock with the food everyone brought. Dinners were here in the big house where Ian MacDougall serenaded us with folk songs one night. Two of his original songs “Graffiti”, about Arthur Stace chalking ‘Eternity’ on the footpaths of Sydney years ago & the “Murrumbidgee song” went down particularly well. How Ian the ex-communist & Jenny the animal liberationist came to be visiting the CMTs west of Walgett after selling their farm at Gulargambone is a long story. Some things simply transcend politics, race, age & the tyranny of distance.
Even in the previously explored old camps and the undisturbed borders of farming paddocks new TinTs turn up. This double wilga & pimelea microcephala in an old stump were new to me as was the currant bush in rosewood that must have been all the rage around the billabongs in that part of Gingie/ Murrumanaarr range (see below)
How much harder would it be to grow trees inside solid non eucalypts – still the ancestors did it. We may regret losing those skills sooner rather than later with the arrival in Perth of the Asian shot-hole borer. If we could grow non susceptible trees inside dying susceptible trees we could reduce the impact on our parks, botanical gardens & arboretums not to mention national reserves & rainforest. I reckon these CMTs will look after themselves as they have done for centuries. The shot- hole borer kills trees by spreading a pathogenic fungus it feeds on but the PSHB (Euwallacea fornicatus) only reproduces in some tree species. Compared to the fire ant in Sth East Qld & varroa mite in NSW this biosecurity fail may be the worst yet… like foxes & cats were to our birds & marsupials the PSHB may be to our trees.
Dr Carol Booth, Invasive Species Council Policy Director said…“15 native tree species in Western Australia have already been identified as highly or very highly susceptible to the polyphagous shot-hole borer – including iconic species like figs, paperbarks, banksias and eucalypts. Another 23 species are moderately susceptible, and that’s just in the Perth region. It implies hundreds of native species across the country could be at risk if the borer spreads.”
Below is the invasive Asian wood borer + the native one living here with the boxtree damage it causes
It seems odd that a beetle 2 mm or less in length would wreak havoc on Australian trees when we have about 7 different & bigger wood borers of our own. The fungi that comes with them must make up for their diminutive size or perhaps it’s their rate of reproduction? It’s a shame wood borers are not cannibalistic on other wood borer species as I would back the Aussie to win hands down. Can we genetically engineer the locals or something?
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“How Ian the ex-communist & Jenny the animal liberationist came to be visiting the CMTs west of Walgett after selling their farm at Gulargambone is a long story.”
FOR THE RECORD: I was never a communist at any time during my wild and some would say irresponsible youth. But I was very active in the movement against the war in Vietnam: and even the former US Defence Secretary Robert S. McNamara came belatedly to realise the rightness of that cause. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fog_of_War .
Best,
Ian.
Yes just a Trotskyist Jane- and the Stalinist communists kicked any guilty of Trotskyism out of the Party. Trotstky was the founder of the Red Army and took part in the 1917 Russian Revolution but was himself expelled from the Communist Party by Stalin who had him murdered in Mexico some years later. The Russian way of dealing with those seen as a threat, for whatever reason – up to the present day.
The threat to trees in WA due to the borer is a real worry, reminds one of the devastation caused to ancient elm trees in Europe due to the Dutch Elm disease, so this threat is not to be taken lightly. The loss of ancient trees is a loss to us all so hopefully something can be done to deal with the borer but it will not be easy. Maybe there will be some biological control found as there is no way individual trees can be treated in a large forest. Ineresting that some trees are less susceptible.
Yes Jenny its a big worry but I dont know enough about wood borers in general to contribute further. Euwallacea fornicatus sounds like a nasty little f**k**