Colours around Armidale

A small copse of Oaks at Tenterfield on the road to Armidale

Raucous colours amongst the young saplings, Armidale Mall

Trees doing an impression of traffic lights Armidale

Leaf colour - science or art

Re-reading the last post it occured to me that whilst there is in my mind at least great fascination in exploring scientific exlainations for widely observed events in the natural world, such explanations can sometimes detract from what for me principally drives the fascination.....the stunning beauty of the thing!

Autumn leaves conjure up for me playing hide and seek with a much loved, long departed boxer dog from my childhood.

The smell, the sounds and the texture of the piles of rapidly desiccating multi hued parchment fragments.

Since moving to Australia in 1989 and living for nearly 20yrs in North Queensland the seasonal markers that changes in leaf colour used to signify have become more confused in my mind. In the tropics (dry and wet) leaf colour change can and does occur dramatically after bud break...yes I know this is true in the Northern Hemisphere and cooler parts of Oz, but I mean the development of red hues, transitioning to green. (Autumn in reverse!)

Some of our trees develop single leaves with dramatic red colours, Quandongs come to mind.

Colourful Armidale

The path we shall follow here on the blog will not be one that has any real chronological order, rather it will be driven by the more interesting and captivating elements of some of the places I have visited, and the thoughts and contemplations they generate.


Earlier this year I drove down to Newcastle from the Gold Coast and during the trip stopped at the very beautiful town of Armidale in NSW.

Wandering Arborist

Welcome to The Wandering Arborist, I want to lead readers along some of the journeys that I have travelled here in Australia, not just in Queensland where I live and work but also into some of the most beautiful parts of our other states and territories.

I doubt that there is anyone who has not had some personal experience of trees, be it ever so fleeting....most of us have childhood memories that will have trees in there...climbing into their canopies, building tree houses, hiding behind their stems, collecting their fruits or seeds, enjoying their changing colours and form through the year. Even if it as superficial as walking through a park or along a street trees are a part of our lives, a far bigger part of our lives than most of us realise......and we are a very big part of theirs.