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Australians in other lands (1)

During the tree naming yesterday I was reminded of seeing Australian trees overseas.

On a coach tour of Los Angeles, gawking at the mansions of Beverly Hills, the bus driver said we Australians would know the trees lining the street. He was wrong, they looked like eucalypts but had big clusters of red flowers like I had never seen before – it turns out they were a Western Australian variety. There are a lot of eucalypt trees in California, the climate seems to suit them.

Another time, by the turquoise sea in Bermuda I spotted familiar wispy trees among the white-roofed candy-box houses. The tour guide called them Australian Pines – we know them as casuarinas or she-oaks.

Photo: Morning dew on Casuarina

Words to walk with:
Read the poem The Bermuda Triangle at the poet John Kinsella’s website. It begins with
“Pat Rafter, saviour of Australian tennis,
maintains a comfortable existence on Bermuda…”

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