Woollybutt, (Eucalyptus longifolia)

Twenty five years ago I was impressed by the large eucalyptus trees growing by the Princes Highway, in the far south east of New South Wales.

 

At the Boydtown turn-off was a very old and tall tree. Now I'm fairly confident it is Eucalyptus longifolia, the Woollybutt.

 

Surprisingly it is still alive in August 2014, though looking even more bedraggled and senescent. Woollybutt is not the most beautiful species in the world of trees, but this veteran has quite a charm about it.

 

According to my laser, it is currently 45 metres tall, and that is after the top branches had died off and fallen. Perhaps it was over 50 metres tall in its prime.

 

Perhaps in twenty five years it may be grey and mostly horizontal in death. But now, it's still hanging in.

 

In those days, the poetic part of my brain was functioning and I wrote about this photographed tree.

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Highway Tree

 

Driving but wanting to stop and get out,

Wanting to walk under one of the big trees.

Too late again as they fly by.

 

The corner of the highway

and Boydtown road,

U-turn then parking close,

Walking through bushes and spiderwebs

Over huge fallen branches.

dragged down by decades of storms,

will the westerlies bring them down today?

 

Highway gum with a lichen stained base.

Imagine the men that lusted for timber.

The escape from the axe in the past two hundred years,

Think of the view from the greatest height,

And all that swims in Twofold Bay.

Done