© Edna Walling Estate.

Source: Walling, Edna: "The Australian Roadside", P.18, Oxford University Press, 1952.

I camped in a forest of Ironbarks for three months before I began to love those trees - before I noticed that some of the leaves are like little red flames when wet and shiny in the sun, and that the almost black, deeply furrowed bark is such a lovely foil for the faintly greyish foliage, with these occasional flashes of red. I was, in fact, one who at first found these black barked trees depressing, but now exclaim 'Ironbarks!' with delight when they appear upon the landscape.

Those of us who love Australia so often seem to love the least spectacular things about it; the old Stringybarks and Messmates, and the Tea-trees, with their small and invariably white or pale pink flowers. We smile with the utmost pleasure at the sight of a gnarled old Red Gum, exclaiming 'What a perfect specimen!' though it leans almost to the ground and has a huge crown that is no perfect dome, worn at the craziest angle!

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