ENVIRONMENTAL advocate and naturalist Ken Rubeli is calling for the development of a record of notable old trees in the Dungog Shire.
“There are many old trees in the Shire that few people are aware of – especially those in our State Forests and National Parks,” Mr Rubeli told NOTA.
“Who might take on the task of building up a register for the Shire’s historical records?”
Mr Rubeli said a number of iconic trees stand out to locals across the Dungog Shire.
“The fig tree in MacKay Street outside the old Dungog Chronicle office is well known to everyone,” Mr Rubeli told NOTA.
“But the ‘champion’ figs are those around Tocal Homestead at Paterson.
“There’s the huge old slaty red gum outside the hospital.
“And there are the spectacular ironwood trees – also known as weeping lilly pilly – downstream from the Cooreei Bridge, rooted there in the banks of the Williams River for hundreds of years.”
Amongst all the precious native vegetation on the Dungog Common, environmentalist Bill Dowling has noted the locations of all the oldest trees, including a few he thinks might have been standing before European settlers came.
Just down the hill from the saleyards on Short Street is a gnarly old ironbark with tortuously twisted branches, and out towards the south-west corner of the Common is a grand spotted gum with a mountain-biking track snaking around its root system.
At the north-west corner of the Girriwa Loop Walking Track on Dungog Common, alongside Gringai Gully, there is a grove of long-established eucalypts and a rough-barked apple that forms a magical forest canopy.
“The Common is living natural history,” said Bill.
“I have a favourite tree there, near what we call ‘The Ruins’.
“It’s a venerable cabbage gum, on the edge of the creek.
“I can’t explain it – it’s like it tells a story.
It’s seen a world of change passing by. It’s majestic.”
