Coachwood (coppice)

Description:

Not only is this a World Heritage Area, but Washpool National Park is also home to the world's largest stand of Coachwood, an Australian native medium-sized hardwood. It occurs in the central and northern coastal rainforests of NSW and southern Queensland, where it is often found on poorer quality soils in gullies and creeks and often occurs in almost pure stands. The trunks are (usually) straight-growing with smooth, fragrant, greyish bark, as well as distinctive horizontal marks, or scars, which often encircle the trunk. They are always encrusted with lichens, and in this case, moss as well. Larger trees have short buttresses. Usually grows to a height of 15 to 25 metres, however exceptional specimens can reach 40 metres tall and live for centuries. The last two images in this set show a good example of natural coppicing. This shows that the rainforest is very old, as this could very well be 3rd generation coppice, possibly older. The last photo has plenty of info. It's an interesting process that shows the tree is always ready to regenerate, and gives the rainforest resilience after disturbances, sometimes from storms, or even fires that can penetrate from sclerophyll forests.

Habitat:

Dense, moist, subtropical rainforest in Washpool National Park. Spotted along the Coombadjha Track with its variety of mosses, fungi and lichens, ground ferns, lianas, and abundant rainforest trees like coachwood, strangler figs, blue gums, red cedar, etc. The park is part of the Washpool and Gibraltar Range area of the Gondwana Rainforests of Australia World Heritage Site, inscribed in 1986 and added to the Australian National Heritage List in 2007.

Notes:

A nearby spotting which was also a first encounter for me; the Superb Lyrebird https://www.projectnoah.org/spottings/13... It added to the whole experience of this World Heritage site being an untouched, unique wilderness.