18 November 2012

The bushfire and the eucalyptus tree

Did you know that the eucalyptus trees encourage the fire that burns them? With the flammable oil in their leaves, their fire-resistant bark and seeds that need heat to spread and start growing new trees. They crave the fire with their existence.

They need it to come, burn through their densely planted forest and remove the unneeded. Get rid of the waste and the competition of others. So that they can start clean.

They need the devastation of the flames and they cause it on their own. Because it’s cleansing, vital, refreshing.

It makes them grow stronger and taller. And they may seem dead from the outside, when burned to ashes, but they are not.

As it’s only a matter of time before they start to recover and grow again. Replacing the blackness of the burned with their new green leaves.


Until no one can tell that there has been a fire. It’s only them who know that you’ve been.