Description
Childhood memories of gustily singing with my Dad ‘She’ll be coming round the mountains when she comes’ remain with me. We would drive to the Blue Mountains for a family holiday and halfway up I would wind down the window to hear the Bellbirds sing. I still do this when I travel up the Gibraltar Ranges and slow down listening to the Bellbirds heralding my journey upwards.
This beautiful Mountain Orange Gum (Eucalyptus prava) is on top of the Great Dividing Range, on the Granite Belt. The Mountain Orange Gum forms part of the forests of the upper catchment of the Clarence River, Northern NSW. Spending time drawing this magnificent, gnarly and very-old growth tree, I learnt about two types of leafhoppers Cicadellidae and the Meadow Argus Butterfly who fluttered around me. I experienced many delightful and tender connections with this tree.