We drive east from our house near the west coast, across the coastal plain and up the Darling Scarp. We leave the tuart and banksia woodlands of the sandy lowlands and climb up through the gravelly granitic hills. We pass through jarrah forest and rocky outcrops as we climb. Further on, the pale bark of wandoo appears in patches then gives way to the over-cleared wheatbelt, my old home ground. The occasional tall salmon bark on the road verge gives a clue as to what this landscape was like before chains strung between bulldozers (and earlier, between horses) dragged the mallees and taller eucalypts from the earth. There are pockets of remnant bush, with coral gums, moort, salmon gums and others, but mostly it’s paddocks, a tinge of green showing through the stubble as crops poke their first leaves up into the sun.
Mostly Driving
Mostly Driving
Mostly Driving
We drive east from our house near the west coast, across the coastal plain and up the Darling Scarp. We leave the tuart and banksia woodlands of the sandy lowlands and climb up through the gravelly granitic hills. We pass through jarrah forest and rocky outcrops as we climb. Further on, the pale bark of wandoo appears in patches then gives way to the over-cleared wheatbelt, my old home ground. The occasional tall salmon bark on the road verge gives a clue as to what this landscape was like before chains strung between bulldozers (and earlier, between horses) dragged the mallees and taller eucalypts from the earth. There are pockets of remnant bush, with coral gums, moort, salmon gums and others, but mostly it’s paddocks, a tinge of green showing through the stubble as crops poke their first leaves up into the sun.