‘Noice, different, unusual: Aussie trees aren’t like their Euro siblings’

One of the first things that struck me when Jacqui and I first arrived in Australia in 1987, was the way everything seems to grow so well here, despite the fact this is undoubtedly a country where water is continually at a premium, with some part, somewhere, always suffering the ravages of drought. Of course, many of the plants and trees we see around us are native to Australia, so they have learnt over many millennia to conserve what water there is and to also, in many cases, produce foliage covered in a thin layer of wax, to slow down any evaporation of the precious liquid in the heat of the day.

I was also very aware that the leaves on most native trees differ from their European counterparts in several important ways. For a start, they tend to be much darker in colour than what would be seen over there. This is perhaps because the strong sun here causes the chlorophyll ‘machinery’ in the tree to work harder, either to protect the interior or to assist in converting more vital chemicals into sugars etcetera.

Unlike their European siblings, Australian trees don’t lose their leaves in autumn. Again I guess this is because they’re required to ‘do their thing’ all year, but what they do lose instead in many cases is their bark! You will often see trees with yards of bark hanging off them. It was something that bothered me a little at first, and I thought perhaps they were suffering some dreadful disease, until a friend assured me it was perfectly normal.

Another great difference between European and Australian trees is their speed of growth. English trees growing in England grow at much the same speed as Australian ones, depending on conditions, of course. But seven years ago I innocently planted an acorn in my garden that had been given to me by a friend. In England, I would have expected that acorn to be about a metre to 1.5 metres in height after seven years of growth, but the one in my garden now stands something like 10 metres tall! It’s absolutely stunning! And with such speed of growth, I suppose the wood it’s making will be soft, much like pine, whereas in England it is one of the hardest timbers produced. It is the wood that was used to make all of England’s warships, such as the ‘Victory’ of Admiral Nelson fame, in the glorious era of such ships and their mastery of all the oceans of the world. I would go so far as to say that it was the oak tree that made England the virtual masters of the known world, which has also led to the English language being the ‘lingua-franca’ anywhere you go today – “Hearts of oak are our ships, jolly tars are our men”!

But getting back to Australian trees, another surprise struck not long after we arrived here: in rural areas it was impossible to miss the great numbers of dead trees standing in paddocks everywhere. I’d seen many pictures in England of this phenomenon, but somehow the impression had always been given that they were only to be found in special places, way off in ‘the outback’, far from human contact. I think some British educationalists, who had never been to Australia themselves, had a somewhat warped idea of what life was really like here. You know the type of person who thinks there are kangaroos hopping about in all main streets, and that everyone spends all their time lying about on some golden beach? Anyway, it didn’t take me long to discover that in most places here, local authorities require such trees to be left where they die, to provide habitat for wildlife. It’s a great idea, really, though I don’t know how much wildlife actually take up the offer of accommodation!

Jacqui and I are very fortunate to be living in Gippsland in Victoria, a rural area that seems to be more or less covered in trees. They stand guard along nearly all country roads here, many of them tall and majestic. It’s lovely to drive along our roads, especially during spring, when the almost continuous copses are liberally dotted with golden-yellow wattle. If there is one slight problem with all this suffusion, it’s the fact that because there are so many trees and shrubs, it is often almost impossible to see and enjoy the lovely Gippsland scenery! I get quite sad sometimes when I see photographs of areas in the heart of the country where there is not a tree to be seen all the way to the horizon. But I suppose that is part of the charm of Australia: it’s a very big country, covering several climatic areas, all of them either beautiful or stunning and it just goes on and on!