AusBonsai

Here are some photos of the fagus in its autumn glory taken on Friday.

Gorgeous!

Magical photos Mel, thanks for posting!

Ta Ben! I love taking photos at Cradle....there is always something going on.

Hi Mel
Is that around the far end of dove lake, beautiful colours
Cheers
Peterb

Just beautiful!!

Hi Peterb and kvan, thanks for your comments.

I think that Jarryd's photo was taken at Mt Field National Park, the other fagus haunt.

These are some of the shots hubby took while he was up on the plateau near the Overland Track. The fagus is better the higher you go.

Isn't cradle beautiful, the other pics were indeed Mt Field. Both spots are magic, but are also just the tip of the iceberg, being the most accessible! There are many more spots like this but they are slowly being reduced by fire as they do not recover from wild and anthropogenic fires. Forestry Burns, Wildfire and an increase in dry electrical storms associated with Global Warming may eventually see the demise of these relic communities of Gondwana. We nearly lost the a great deal just recently during the Jan/Feb fires in 2016.

Cradle is indeed beautiful, but a little difficult to access for someone like me with shocking knees. I keep meaning to check out Mt Field, but never seem to get there. Quite a few of the guys who join us each April know the Cradle Mtn area well, and will take the hardy walkers to different places each year. I tend to stick to the lowlands, but this year I managed to get two thirds of the way up Hounslow, which I'm happy about!

We drove through Lake MacKenzie on our way out from Cradle, the foliage is all starting to grow again on the blackened trunks of the eucs, but as you say, much of the ancient timber will never recover, sadly. It's good we've managed to see a lot of it before it's gone for ever. Yes, more lightning strikes will be common, which will start even more fires....and Tasmania doesn't have the funds or people able to make quick decisions on putting fires out, from what I've seen and heard.