As I spend most of my time in forests then by necessity I usually camp under trees and just take the risk.
However very close to my current campsite I came across the following (see pic). As you can see the gate is made from steel tube but a falling branch has landed directly on it and significantly deformed it. As best I can tell the culprit is the branch directly behind the gate and it is not large perhaps 150mm diameter.
A salutary reminder of what even a smallish branch falling from a decent height will do to a human body
Wouldn't there be a delicious irony in having your coffin made from the wood of the falling branch which killed you and then being cremated :)
Reminds me of an incident a few years ago in Kempsey, NSW, where the local rural mail contractor was killed when a tree fell onto his car. His infant son was in a capsule in the back seat area, and escaped injury when Dad was killed less than a metre away. Fortunately the child will have no memory of the incident, but just goes to show that you never know when your number's up. "Live for today, and live in clover. 'Cos when you're dead, you're dead all over.". .
-- Edited by yobarr on Thursday 18th of August 2022 04:03:34 PM
In 2007 we were camped at Lake Hattah in Hattah-Kulkyne NP NW Victoria, we were camping with our off road camper trailer. The whole campground is surrounded by River Red Gums.
At the entrance was a newly erected sign warning campers of the dangers of falling limbs.
A huge wind event came thru on day two, raising a dust storm.
The sound of falling branches was deafening. It only lasted around 15 minutes.
After it had passed thru we walked around the area & saw hundreds of fallen branches.
The size of some of them was mind boggling, some would have weighed as much as a cement truck.
The newly erected sign was flattened by a limb about a metre in diameter.
Luckily we were out in the open & were the only ones camped there.
The fact that these eucalypt branches, or whole trees for that matter, can cause massive destruction when they fall (not if) should mandate their removal in suburban backyards and be permitted to remove if within 15-20 meters of a building. Suburban and Shire Councils place onerous restrictions on the removal of trees that they become too expensive to be made safe.
With the current trend of allowing houses to be built on 250 square meter blocks of land it is imperative that the "widow makers" be outlawed.
There are many native trees that do not have the potential to destroy and kill, usually without prior warning - Lily Pili, Melaleuca and Wattle varieties for example.
This has been a bug-bear of mine for many years both as a SES Officer and owner of a rural property that derived income from Eucalypts - even more so since a massive tree destroyed my rural house 12 months ago.
__________________
Possum; AKA:- Ali El-Aziz Mohamed Gundawiathan
Sent from my imperial66 typewriter using carrier pigeon, message sticks and smoke signals.
One house that we built was on acreage on the outskirts of town & there was an enormous red gum on the block next to us about 20 feet from our house.
During a rather wet period it was blown over, roots & all and fortunately landed parallel to our fence. I created a massive job to cut up & remove before a house could be built on the block. Beautiful burning wood I expect.
Great that it missed our house but good also in that it had long been the haunt for magpies who used to dive bomb my wife as she was hanging out clothes on the back yard Hills hoist.
It always looks good to camp in the shade of those massive river red gums alongside a creek or whatever, but to be avoided like the plague (or Covid LOL).
Having seen massive damage from tree branches in the past, we do not camp under trees and if trees are near, I look at the arc that a tree branch can fall and stay outside this area
I had that happen to a farm gate on our place. Parts were repurposed into some garden art...so not a total loss.
Green branches are always falling down but there's also plenty of trees blowing over given the soggy round. I've got some huge piles of logs drying out for future firewood. Some I've slabbed to become future rustic garden furniture.
