Squid monster Greetings fellow Foxies
Every reserve I have explored so far contains a bunyip, but Borgey Block (southeast of Williams) is different. Its guardian is an Ent!
This block must have been a part of Fangorn Forest in the time of middle earth.
The Ent is an ancient and fearsome being that morphs into differing monsters.
My first sighting was a giant prawn monster slowly lumbering towards me, but as I slowly circled it, I saw an eagle monster, a serpent monster, a squid monster, and a mantis monster.
Tread lightly in this reserve!
Every reserve I have explored so far contains a bunyip, but Borgey Block (southeast of Williams) is different. Its guardian is an Ent!
This block must have been a part of Fangorn Forest in the time of middle earth.
The Ent is an ancient and fearsome being that morphs into differing monsters.
My first sighting was a giant prawn monster slowly lumbering towards me, but as I slowly circled it, I saw an eagle monster, a serpent monster, a squid monster, and a mantis monster.
Tread lightly in this reserve!
 Walking prawn monster |  Baleful eye and fierce teeth |  It almost stomped on me |
 Eagle monster rear view |  Eagle monster front view |  Mantis monster |
Serpent monster
I suppose I am required to provide a scientific explanation for boring people who don’t believe in Ents, middle-earth, or Lord of the Rings (sigh).
OK here goes:
This is actually an old Drummonds mallee (Eucalyptus drummondii) that grew as a tree. Mallees uncommonly do this if the main stem is not affected by fire or other events that stimulate new stems to emerge from the basal lignotuber.
At some time, the tree was hit by lightning that blasted the top off, and completely split the stem to the ground on one side and to about a metre from the ground on another. Contraction of the outer sapwood pulled the dry inner heartwood outwards to form the surface of half of each split stem’s perimeter.
OK here goes:
This is actually an old Drummonds mallee (Eucalyptus drummondii) that grew as a tree. Mallees uncommonly do this if the main stem is not affected by fire or other events that stimulate new stems to emerge from the basal lignotuber.
At some time, the tree was hit by lightning that blasted the top off, and completely split the stem to the ground on one side and to about a metre from the ground on another. Contraction of the outer sapwood pulled the dry inner heartwood outwards to form the surface of half of each split stem’s perimeter.
Narrow cord of living tree Later possibly only ten years or so ago, a bushfire scorched the outer stems of the new ‘trunks’ and burnt through the base of each to form the Ent’s legs. This fire stimulated seed germination, which resulted in surrounding daughter plants that grew as normal mallees. The Ent mallee is barely surviving. One stem has only a three-centimetre cord of sapwood traversing the dead wood.
Another more recently lightning destroyed tree in this reserve is described in this blog.
Another more recently lightning destroyed tree in this reserve is described in this blog.
