Monday, September 16, 2013

THE KARRI FOREST (especially for EC but to share too)

EC you commented on how you would love to see our karri forest and I've found some beautiful pictures I thought I'd share with you.  Most of these were taken in the Pemberton area although the karri forest is more widespread than that.  Many of the trees in old growth forest reach a height of 90 metres (295 feet) and can live to 300 years of age.  To stand quietly amongst them is a feeling just out of this world. There is, of course, quite a lot of regrowth karri forest as there has been a lot of logging over the years.








and amongst the giant trees there are beautiful wildflowers that will also take your breath away:


9 comments:

  1. Hari Om
    OOoohh, Mimsie, hope you had a super anniversary and these piccies are just too gorgeous for words. I can almost smell the forest! YAM xx

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    1. Thanks Yamini, we had a quiet but enjoyable anniversary with roast pork and all the trimmings (and it was take away would you believe?).
      These forest truly are beautiful and there are pleasant and not so pleasant smells as one of the shrubs that grows in the understory has a definitely unpleasant odour when in bloom. I forget which one but it does pong a bit. Otherwise it is all beauty everywhere. xx

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  2. Thank you so much. Years back when I was in Perth for work I took a tour to see 'virgin Karri forest'. When the bus was about half an hour away the driver said - 'virgin forest - only milled once sixty years ago'. As a hard wood they grow very, very slowly and the site he took us to had saplings. Beautiful but not the gentle giants I had come to see. I was so disappointed I nearly cried (and wrote a stroppy letter when I got back about the concept of renewable virginity). These glorious giants were JUST what I hoped to see.

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    1. I am glad you enjoyed the pics. I think I know exactly where that tour guide took. They used to call it "the 60 year (old) forest" and there was beauty there but not the beauty of the giants in the virgin karri forest. I have photos we took back in the 1980s when we took Kiwi friends for a tour of the southwest and we stopped for a cuppa right in the 60 year forest. There has been felling there too but many of the old trees are left standing. In the areas they they more or less clear fell (which I think is scandalous) they do leave 'seed' trees for future regeneration but you can imagine how long they take to grow into giants.

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  3. Well I must say these photos took my breath away they are beautiful. I would LOVE to go through this forest, I do have a thing for beautiful forests:). Hug B

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    1. The giant redwoods and the karri are some of the most wonderful trees in the world. There are also large trees in our eastern states as well but I reckon our karri beats them for sheer beauty. xx

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  4. I am always awed when I hear of trees that are 300 or more years old.
    These are just beautiful.
    To be there so long without some one coming through with a bulldozer....that's wonderful.

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    1. River, read my reply to EC about clear felling etc. A few years back they would clear fell and leave some standing along the roads so people touring wouldn't realise that had been done. There was a real hue and cry about that. Our jarrah also were huge but they cut down so many in the early years of settlement and then jarrah dieback came along (Phytophora cinnamomi) and they had to stop people going into the jarrah forest to try and protect them.
      In case you come back here my email address is mimsie@amnet.net.au Let me have your address and a couple of Dick Francis books will be in the mail. They are secondhand paperbacks so a bit scruffy but that doesn't detract from the stories one little bit. Will wait to hear from you.

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