For dad

Last summer there was a large bushfire north of Esperance in Western Australia. As we drove north to Norseman from Esperance yesterday we drove through areas that were burnt in that fire and near Grass Patch we stopped to have a closer look.

Burnt mallee at Grass Patch

It was a reserve of mallee - mallee eucalypt trees, banksias and other small shrubs. The regrowth was just starting and because the trees are mallee they regrow from the base rather than epicormic shoots along the branches. It would be an ideal time to identify species of eucalypt because the juvenile growth is distinctly different.

I was somewhat surprised to see that a number of small shrubs and forbs were flowering and I found three different orchids as well. All of these were found within fifty metres of our parked car.

Curry Flower Lysinema ciliatum

As I wandered through the blackened landscape I had my father in my thoughts. We were south of Perth on our holiday in Western Australia, visiting a cousin, when we had word that my father, Angus Wyllie, had died after a short illness. After considering alternatives we decided to immediately drive back to Victoria with the van. Those of you who are regular readers of this blog will know that we don't usually travel quickly but we put our running shoes on and, apart from short lunch and coffee stops, just kept going.

I was thinking about dad because one of the many good things he did in his ninety-five years was to volunteer as a firefighter in his local brigade at Homerton. Sometimes he was captain of the brigade. Every summer the truck was called out to various fires. In the days when dad was involved, in the 1950s and 1960s, There weren't as many rules and regulations as there are now so the brigade was a bit like 'Dad's Army' but they got the job done.

I also got to thinking about life and death, growth and regrowth, how fire in the Australian bush doesn't usually kill. Many plants need the heat and the smoke in order to generate from seed and many trees, like the mallees, have developed survival techniques. Dad was a farmer and a thinker and a lay preacher and he enjoyed using a metaphor in his sermons so I think he would approve of me thinking about him in a burnt forest. Especially so because he has chosen to be cremated. He has lived a very good life and his genes continue in many children, grandchildren and  great-grandchildren who all loved him.

Western Australia, we will be back.

Fire

We've been on the road about seven weeks, up and down the Stuart Highway. There's now a lot of the tourist literature stuffed into the pocket behind the passenger seat of our car. Some of it has been useful and informative, some is just advertising junk, some inadequate. I'll probably put it all into the recycle bin when we get home.

A fact mentioned in a lot of the material is that the environment needs to be regularly burnt, has been burnt for thousands of years by Aboriginals and lightning strikes, that many plants nee the heat of fire in order to regenerate. But, I have seen a lot of damage on our travels and I'm sorry now that I didn't photograph the ugly as well as the beautiful. I've seen many kilometres of roadsides where the plants have not recovered, I've seen mature trees burnt beyond recovery, I've seen Mulga trees completely destroyed by fire and no young plants growing to replace them. Maybe the fires have been too hot. Maybe they've been too frequent. Maybe they've been too large rather than a patchwork of small fires.

I think it's a big problem. Is it used as a management tool for weeds? Are the fires planned or random? Is it occurring just along the highways or is it happening on the stations as well? Where are the mature trees with hollows? Where is the biodiversity that used to exist? Where to the small fauna go when the fire is large? And if they do manage to hide underground what do they eat when they emerge after a fire? I need to do some more reading on the subject.

We saw a lot of fires through the Alice Springs area when we travelled through three years ago. This year we haven't seen any. But we did see a lot in the savannah woodland in the Top End.

Karlu Karlu

We're tourists, right? So we did the tourist thing and turned off the highway to see the Devils Marbles. To say I was surprised is an understatement. The site is awesome. Awe some. And I think they should be called their original name, Karlu Karlu.

I've seen photos of the rock formations but I had know idea that the boulders are scattered over such a large area or that they are so large. They must be a fantastic sight in the late afternoon light or sunrise and next time I'm on the Stuart I'll be staying nearby so that I can see that.

I love you Karlu Karlu.

The flora of Australia has been modified and defined by centuries of fire. For the last three days we've been driving through country that has been burnt recently, patches of green and black because the fires have burnt slowly and some areas have escaped, and today we saw the live action and heard the spinifex crackling as it was consumed.

And this one's for W. Phil thinks the road ahead is OK.

A good spot to put down roots

After the fire the stony ground was bare, even twelve months later, on Buckshot Track in the Brisbane Ranges. There is almost no soil between the buckshot - small ironstone gravel - and after a long and hot summer it's very dry and exposed. But this little seedling has found a haven. It's growing in the shelter and small amount of humus in the burnt lepidosperma clump and looks like it may survive to grow into a tree. It's a Black Wattle Acacia mearnsii.