Wildflowers and History #5

Gurulmundi State Forest

After driving for 47 kilometres, we finally arrived at the turn off to Wildflower Road. We’d already found plenty of wildflowers and were hoping to see more.

At first the road passed through open eucalypt forest. In the days before this area was a state forest, timber mills processed cypress pine, ironbark and spotted gum for use on railways and bridges. With the timber cutters long gone the trees now grow undisturbed, surrounded by Mauve Kunzia and Firebush shrubs.

A few kilometres further on the landscape changed, with the forest giving way to a vast expanse of leptospermum bushes, commonly known as tea tree. Although most of the plants had finished flowering, a few bushes were still covered in clusters of waxy white blooms.

For several kilometres we drove beside the Dingo Fence. Built in the 1880s, the 5,614 km fence still protects livestock from wild dog attacks.

A gate marked the boundary of the state forest and the end of Wildflower Road. As always, we made sure to close the gate behind us. We wouldn’t see any more flowers on this day, but there were a few historical sites still to come.