29 June 2017
Mountain ash and bushfires
Baroness Bertha, a giant mountain ash tree in Victoria’s Yarra Ranges, stands almost 60 metres tall, and 15 metres in girth. The tree is hollow at its base, with an arched opening to a cathedral-like space that could fit half a dozen people. Standing inside her towering form, I smell the rich mulch of the leaf litter underfoot, and touch its strangely spongy wood charred black by bushfire. How could...