Ghosts of Fires Past

Riding on the Great Alpine Road in Victoria’s High Country is an eerily beautiful experience. Leaving Bright and heading south over Mount Hotham, you climb to around 6,000 feet very quickly and pass through clearly distinct layers from grassy valleys with grazing cattle to steeply wooded hills to an alpine tortured landscape – and ski lifts. Along the way the Snow Gum trees (Eucalyptus pauciflora) change from massive tall specimens to stunted bushes that are twisted and gnarled as they struggle to survive the loads of ice and snow that covers them in winter. Hard to imagine these are the same tree they look so different.

One thing they have in common …  how they burn.

This area has had severe bush fires in 2003, 2006 and 2013 that consumed the leaves and boiled the sap out of the thin barked tree leaving millions and millions of grey, bleached skeletons as far as the eye can see. Strangely beautiful.

The battle here, as in other parts of the world, rages between forest experts and farmers. The cattle were removed from these forests years ago to prevent damage to trails and water courses but the cattlemen claim that their animals can help trample and eat the fuel load in the forest.