AUSTRALIA 2023

Brisbane! My home away from home for the next six months. Brisbane is the largest city in Queensland and third largest in Australia and is named for the river that runs through it. The Indigenous Turrbal peoples refer to this area as Meanjin. The city will host the 2032 Summer Olympics, so there is a flurry of building projects happening at the moment: new stadium, expansion of the Metro and erection of at least a dozen new high-rise towers. A beautiful, clean and exciting place to be….happy to be here.

The Brisbane City Botanic Gardens is approximately two blocks away from the flat I am renting. An amazing place to visit this time of year as the vegetation is lush and many plants are in full bloom. One specimen that caught my eye is the Banyan Tree (Ficus benghalensis), a 150-year old (or older) fig tree that sends out aerial roots that can be trained to form new trunks. Some of these trees are known to be 500 years-old and can extend several acres in area. This particular tree is reported to have a 50-meter dbh (diameter at breast height, yes…it is a real unit of measure in forestry). Not sure how they calculated this considering the number of stems it has (methods do exist), still, an impressive tree.

One of my Fulbright goals while in Australia is to implement and promote reforestation projects as a means toward mitigating climate change. In 2022, my non-profit organization, Green Forests Work, partnered with the Arbor Day Foundation, Corporate Carbon and Unearthed Environmental Services to plant 200,000 native trees on about 2,500 acres of former pasture. Last week I took a drive across the Great Dividing Range and into the Granite Belt to check on our seedlings. Although the site is clearly ready for the upcoming rainy season, the seedlings are hanging on and have made it through that important first growing season. Through this project, 95,000+ metric tons of carbon dioxide will be sequestered in the trees and a healthy, functioning native ecosystem that supports biodiversity will be protected for 100 years.

When I travel, I am always on the lookout for things that I can use in the classes I teach. It is nice to have an image or video of a concept that I can discuss from a personal experience, rather than pulling it off the web or out of a book. Last week I found a great example of orographic precipitation. This is a phenomenon where a moist air mass rises to move across a mountain range. As the air rises, it cools, reaches a saturation point, forms clouds and ultimately rain. As the air mass moves across the mountains and drops there is less moisture and warmer temperatures which creates a rain shadow. So, we find that vegetation is moist and lush on the upwind (windward) side of the mountain and dry and sparce on the downwind (leeward) side. This image of a cool subtropical rainforest is from the upward side of the Great Dividing Range, while the images I showed previously from our planting site (only 50 miles away) were on the downwind side. If you have ever taken a flight east from Seattle, WA you may have noticed a similar pattern as you flew over the Cascades. 

My lunch buddy! There is a small pavilion outside the building I am working in that is a perfect location for a break and a snack. Located on the banks of the Brisbane River, it usually has a nice breeze and lots of activities on the water to see. On my first venture to this location, I sat down and this Australian Water Dragon (Intellangama leseurii) ran toward me and nearly jumped in my lap. Wasn’t expecting that…..almost jumped out of my shoes! I shooed him away with my hat, but he would just come right back and sit down next to me. There appear to be a dozen or so in the area, but this same one (the biggest!) comes back day after day and hangs-out next to me. Looks like I made a new friend!

I departed Brisbane to embark on some travel and new adventures in Australia. I flew into Sydney and rented a vehicle (an MG, didn’t know they were still in business…I am fairly certain it wasn’t made in Great Britain!) and headed into the New South Wales countryside to the Fish River Treffiere. As many of you know, my siblings and I started a truffle orchard on our farm in Lexington a few years ago. While we wait for the first truffle to arrive, I thought it would be good to visit some truffle farms where they have experienced success and get some pointers. Outside of France and Italy, Australia has become a top commercial producer of truffles. There have been several books recently released about the mysterious truffle and even more mysterious truffle trade - The Truffle Underground, Truffle Hound, Entangled Life – all of which describe a cloak of darkness surrounding truffle cultivation and sales. So it was with great surprise that a completely anonymous email to Carmine Di Campli, owner of Fish River Truffles, requesting a visit to his orchard was received with open arms. I spent Saturday walking through a 20-year-old orchard of hazelnut and English oaks (the same species I am growing in Kentucky) and learning about some things that were successful and others that weren’t. It was great hearing first-hand from someone who has passion about growing this crazy fungi. Sorry, I can’t share what I learned…trade secrets!

Over the weekend I stayed in a small town called Millthorpe. It was a former railroad stop that has been transformed to a weekend destination with a few nice coffee shops, antique galleries, and restaurants (I found it similar to Midway, Kentucky). After a long day in the field, I was very hungry and looking forward to a nice dinner on the town. Well, there were only two places open to eat …the pub and an award-winning restaurant, Tonic, known for farm to table foods and local wine selections. I had a beer at the pub and then decided to go to the restaurant. I walked in and asked for a table and the hostess informed me that they were serving a planned five-course dinner with paired wine selections from the region. The waitress asked if I was ok with that and I thought “why not”. What I didn’t realize was that it was their Valentine's Day dinner and….I was the only single person dining! To make it worse, they seated me next to the door and the front window for everyone to see. Pathetic! All of the staff was very nice and stopped by periodically to talk to me…and express pity! It was actually very good…I got a laugh out of it later in reflection. Lonely heart Valentine 2023 for sure!

While much of my time in Australia has been focused on work and trees, I have had an opportunity recently to do some travel and exploring. One of my recent trips was to the federal capital of Australia, Canberra, to meet fellow Fulbrighters from the US and those from Australia that will be going to the states to work or study. It was an interesting few days where I met some amazing people doing extraordinary work. The week was capped off with a Gala at the Parliament House where all of the scholars presented work on their projects and received a certificate of recognition for their accomplishments. The US Ambassador to Australia, Caroline Kennedy, was there to present the awards and I receive this picture to document the occasion. I told someone that I was going to burn the suit I was wearing… that had been stuffed in a suitcase for a few weeks… after the event. Unfortunately, there is a burn ban in Australia at the moment…so I will have to wait and light it up on my return to the US around a campfire one evening. Get the marshmallows ready!

This week we will begin our tree planting season in Australia. In anticipation of that, I decided to visit the nursery, Narromine Transplants, where our native seedlings were established. I met David Cliffe, Managing Director of the nursery, near the town of Dubbo in New South Wales and had a nice conversation and tour of his operation. David is currently growing 8 million trees…with about 100,000 of those dedicated to projects I will be planting. The seedlings looked great! Nice and healthy and ready to be transplanted. Let’s hope for good weather!

Recently, my wife and her parents made the long journey over to visit me and see a bit of Australia. As many do, we started our Australian adventure in Sydney with a night at the Opera House and the closing-night performance of Don Giovanni. A long weekend at Palm Cove and the Great Barrier Reef followed, then another long weekend in Tasmania. There was work in between, but we made the most out of the time they were here. Hikes, sea adventures, vineyards, museums, markets, and more....lots of great food and local wine too! It was too short, but I really appreciated having them here.