We took a drive up to Wentworth, to see the confluence of the Murray and Darling Rivers. The lighter-coloured water in the foreground is the Darling, which runs for 1390 km, draining southern Queensland and western NSW before it joins the Murray here. The 2575-km-long Murray River arises in the Australian Alps. It and its tributaries drain much of NSW.
Magnificent colours on the bole of a River Red Gum, Eucalyptus camaldulensis, 3m across. This is the dominant species along inland waterways.
We took a trip on the PS Melbourne, and spotted these swallow-nests under a river-cliff. I love the colour-contrasts.
Walking in Mildura is a great way to see beautiful gardens and street trees. This bottle-brush is just huge, and a great climbing tree too, our boys told us. The canopy is about 8m across and the tree is at least that height. I can't tell you exactly what it is, but I assume it is a type of Callistemon viminalis.
Around the corner is this extraordinary Queensland Bottle Tree, Brachychiton rupestris. Quite a number of these trees were planted in Mildura in earlier times, but not all have flourished like this one.
A close-up of the distinctive trunk:
But we also discovered a terrible secret lurking in a quiet back street...
You saw it here first: in the next series, Dr Who will have to save Australia from Daleks! Stone the crows!
5 comments:
I love the interesting photos. :) The swallow nests remind me of giant dirt dobber nests (similar looking to wasps) I was a bit worried for a minute, lol. The tree is amazing. You won't see this in Texas. :)
Shoot, those Daleks are really everywhere, aren't they? ;-) Love this tour of a big chunk of Australia you're sharing with us. That Corynnia station garden is fab!
Mildura is a lovely town isn't it?
I have very fond memories of trips on the paddleboats up and down the river there.
Glad you are enjoying this! It has been fun sorting out and improving my photos for you all! And it's a privilege to show off a part of Australia that isn't often seen, especially by international blog-visitors.
Between the bottlebrush and the bottle trees, you've got some great native trees. The bottlebrush is planted with increasing frequency in Austin, but if we ever get a really hard freeze I suppose they'd be lost.
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