The giant Red Tingle Trees (Eucalyptus Jacksonii) have a very shallow root structure, and rely on buttresses at their base to keep them upright. The trunks are sometimes dramatically hollowed out by bushfires, while the tree lives on. Many of these trees are over 400 years old and can reach heights of 60m and a base circumference of 16m at their maturity. Generations of visitors have tramped around these wonders, and there was once a famous Tingle Tree nearby whose hollow base was so large you could drive a car through it. Only in recent years have we come to understand how fragile and sensitive are the Tingle Tree roots, and what damage we did by those wondering visits.

At the Valley of the Giants, a pathway has been constructed to take visitors on a controlled walk through the fragile understorey environment of the Tingle Trees at the Valley of the Giants. Once we enter the walk proper, we do not walk on the forest floor, but on a boardwalk. The path winds around and between the trunks, and at one point, actually butts up to one Tingle Tree base, so we can touch and see its rough, red bark up close. Another ancient has a platform constructed inside its hollow base, so we can stand within its cavernous space without walking around on the leaf litter at its base, which thus protects the roots.

Our visit was in the early morning, after the first storms of autumn, and the forest was green and lush and fragrant with earth scents. This is a very different environment to the arid landscape which is so characteristic of the majority of the Australian bush.

This tourist center is designed and maintained by CALM to enable us to visit and wonder at these magnificent trees.

When we leave, we take only photographs and memories away with us...

Tassel Flower leaves: Leucopogon verticillatus

delicate understory growth

a small snail with a conical, orange-&-black striped shell

Our lads on an elevated platform constructed on the base of a fallen Tingle Tree

growth on a fallen log

Geoff & The Boys inside the burnt-out base of a living Red Tingle tree

Bark texture of the trunk of a Yellow Tingle Tree sapling

Moss growing on the trunk of an older Tingle Tree

The base of a mature Tingle Tree, possibly 400 years old.

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