As promised, I'd like to show you a famous grove of apple trees growing at the Parkes Radio Telescope, in central New South Wales. These trees are said to be the direct descendants of Sir Isaac Newton's famous apple tree.
Cuttings were taken from the original tree in England and grafted to produce these trees growing at Parkes. Apparently, an apple fell on Newton's head and from this experience he thought up his famous theory of gravitation. That's the story, anyway.
Also growing at The Dish at Parkes is a stand of Eucalyptus rhodanthas with their large red flowers and exotic seed cases. Doug has propagated these trees from seed; however, the young trees died during the summer in the ground at Mitchell. We suspect they got waterlogged due to heavy summer rains.
A huge lemon scented gum, located in Culcairn (New South Wales), in a leash-free dog exercise park, is always a stop off for us. Here our two German shepherds can run and play, and we can stretch our legs while at the same time breathing in the strong lemon/eucalyptus aroma that hangs around the tree.
I don't know the exact age of the tree but it's probably around 80 years.
Other than notable trees, today's journey has been remarkably uneventful: kilometre after kilometre of cropping and grazing land which is typical of inland Australia -- under a wide sunny sky.
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