For our walk this week, Bob and myself visited “Mr Fat”, which is probably the largest tree in the Cumberland Plain. I had read about this tree in Peter Ridgeway’s excellent book – “A Wide and Open Land“, his account of a 179 km walk across the Cumberland Plain. Bob had also read the book, and so Mr Fat was on both our lists of places to visit.
Peter Ridgeway had given us some good advice on the best way to get to the tree. Bob parked at the end of a road at Camden and we set off at first along a cycleway to the Nepean River.
Then we crossed a small creek to reach some mountain bike trails. Looking at the ground we saw some “whitewash”, and looked up and high above, we spotted a Powerful Owl –
We then walked to the Nepean River, and went through a gate, with “Keep Out” signs – but the trail is regularly used by mountain bikers. The mountain one trails, sometimes dual, are between the river and cleared farmland. This strip along the river is heavily vegetated by riparian rainforest.
We saw this old weir – Thurns Weir –
After about two hours walking, we reached Mr Fat. It is an enormous tree.
It is a Eucalyptus saligna – Eucalyptus botryoides hybrid (Wollongong Woollybutt). On the National Register of Large Trees in is listed as being 8.07 m in circumference.
After a snack and some photos, we then started walking back the way we had come.
The river has been changed a lot by recent floods –
And the banks have been washed out in places –
We stopped for lunch on the way back.
When we arrived back at Bob’s car, we visited a nearby park to look for a Boobook Owl. But it was well inside its hollow.
We then drove to Ruse, a suburb of Campbeltown, to look for an Aboriginal art cave. We found the cave, known as “The Bull Cave” as it contains two charcoal drawings of bulls. These are thought to date back to around 1800. There are also some faint white hand stencils . Unfortunately, despite the cave being protected by a metal grid, there is a lot of graffiti.
This may be part of one of the bulls –
At at least three hand prints in the photo below –
And another hand print –
And the second bull on the right side of this photo –
Near the right are the two front legs of the bull, and to the left near the “k” in the “Punk” graffiti is the bull’s penis. See this site for a photo of the cave before the present lot of graffiti was added. And this site shows a sketch of the two bulls. Thanks to Bob for those links.
