Silky Oak trees

Over the last week or so, some trees in my garden have started to produce lots of orangy yellow comb like flowers. They look pretty spectacular and I was curious about what type of tree they are. Well thanks to the magic of google, the search string "tree yellow comb like flowers" eventually lead me to pictures of the same variety of tree. They are silky oak trees (grevillea robusta). I have four of them, two along the front fence line and two along the back fence line.

Here is a shot of one of them in the front garden:

One of the sites I found says that these trees can grow to 35 meters in the wild, but usually only get to about 14 meters in suburbia. I sincerely hope these ones keep to the lower estimate, 35 meters is a bit high for a tree in a backyard!

Trip to Ballarat

Last Friday I drove to Ballarat, to visit N and S and their new baby T. S had just started back at work, so N and I went to lunch in Ballarat, with T in his pram. T was just two weeks old, and very gorgeous, and very small! He is big for a two week old though.

It was great catching up, and N is recovering well from the C-section and seems to be coping very well with young T.

When S got home from work, we ordered Indian take away and caught up a bit over dinner. After dinner I had a ticket for the "Blood on the Southern Cross" light and sound show at Sovereign Hill, so I said my goodbyes and headed off.

The show was fun, and the special effects were often very impressive. I now have a much better understanding of the Eureka Stockade and the effect on Australian history, so that was worth while. Then I drove back to Melbourne and collapsed into bed. Good day.

Otways day trip

On Tuesday, I decided to go on a day trip to the Otways. The drive down (via Colac) took about 3 hours all up, including a couple of short breaks.

Otway Fly
My first stop was the Otway Fly . The Fly is a raised path, which takes you from ground level to treetop height and back. To reach the fly, you walk from the ticket office, down about a half kilometer track to the entrance to the fly.

Here is a view of the walkway construction, looking down through the walkway.

The walkway curves around. Halfway along, at the highest point, is a tower. There is a very narrow spiral staircase to the top of the tower. The views from the top are pretty spectacular.

Looking down from the tower, here is a view of the cantilever section (left) and the continuation of the walkway (right).


After finishing the Fly walk, the path takes you back to the ticket office. On the way back, I saw a black snail on the path. Apparently this species is only found in the Otways, and is carnivorous, eating small insects.

I really enjoyed the Otway fly, it was worth the trip.

Triplet Falls

After finishing up at the fly, I decided to head on to the Triplet Falls walk, which is near by. The walking track has been upgraded recently and is in good condition, but involves a LOT of stairs. I was a bit daunted on the way down (worrying about the walk back up!) but the view of the waterfalls was well worth it.

The waterfalls have three viewing platforms. Here is a view from the lowest, where the falls are reducing to cascades.

Up the track (and more stairs), a short distance is the mid level viewing platform. This is probably the best view of the falls. The main section of waterfall has a forrested section in the middle, creating two main streams of water.

Finally, the uppermost platform gives a view down to the falls through the trees. I don't have any good photos of this, as the camera kept focusing on the trees.

The path back crosses over one of the streams feeding the falls.

When I came around a corner and saw this walkway, my first thought was "wow, that's quite artistic!". Then I realised that I was looking at a section of the walkway that a tree had fallen on. The chopped up remains of the tree trunk are next to the walkway.

Further up, there was an old abandoned steam engine, with it's load of wood left near by.


Once I made it back to the carpark it was getting late, and my ankles were a bit sore after all the stairs. So I decided to head back to Colac, then do the "Red Rock" scenic drive. To be honest, I suspect the "loop" of the drive was drawn on the tourist map by someone in Melbourne, who has never been there, and wanted something else to add to the map. The roads were very narrow and poorly maintained. However the drive to the Red Rock lookout was worth while. These are two views from the lookout. On the left is a view of the countryside, showing the volcanic nature of the scenery. On the right is a view of Lake Corrangamite. The sun was breaking through the clouds over the lake, which is why the foreground looks so dark.

After this, I drove north to Cressey, and then home. All in all a worthwhile trip.