A blog of grumpiness, stilts and skin.

Saturday, January 21, 2006

Perhaps unless the billboards fall

Here's a photo of my favourite tree - the Bunya Pine. Or five of them to be precise.

They're natives of their eponymous Bunya Mountains in Southeast Queensland, and also occur much farther north on the fringes of rainforest around Cairns. But in this pic' they're growing nicely in Pinjarra, Western Australia.

I planted my first Bunya in 1979, and had the school janitor not rolled over it with his ride-on mower, the tree would be about twelve foot high now - which goes to show how old the beauties pictured here must be.

The Bunya Pine, Araucaria Bidwilli, as I have long regaled poor Hazel, is not actually a pine at all, but a conifer. It's closely related to, and looks very much like, the Monkey Puzzle tree of Southern Chile, a mighty ocean away.

Every few years for god knows how many millennia, when the trees sprouted a good feed of nuts, the Aboriginal (Murri) peoples from all over Southeast Queensland - even those from Fraser and Stradbroke Islands - used to converge on the Bunya Mountains for a Bunya fest.

I once frazzled some Bunya nuts up myself, but can't say I was overly fond of them. They're obviously an acquired taste.

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4 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

There is a field on Vic Park that has a large number of these pines in them. The entertaining part is that under each tree is a sign stating that people should not sit under the pines due to the weight of the falling nuts (up to 5kg). Next to each sign though is a seat.

Monday, January 23, 2006

 
Blogger Grump Les Tiltskin said...

Raphael Park? I can picture the trees, but not the signs or the seats.

Classic.

Monday, January 23, 2006

 
Blogger hazelblackberry said...

Spud Mack makes a welcome return to the comments.

Monday, January 23, 2006

 
Blogger Grump Les Tiltskin said...

I hope he steers clear of those 5 kilo Bunya cones though.

Monday, January 23, 2006

 

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