The Otway Fly Tree Top Walk - Great Ocean Road, Victoria, Australia

Mountain Ash (Eucalyptus regnans)

The world’s tallest flowering plant, it has been known to reach more than 100 metres. No trees of this size remain in the Otways, where the Mountain Ash has been logged and re-seeded for more than 150 years.

The wood is hard, dense and straight-grained - ideal for flooring, wall-panelling and weather-boards. Unlike most eucalypts, fire kills Mountain Ash. However, fire also causes its seeds to regenerate. Each stand of Mountain Ash represents the passage of a bushfire.

The trees reach maturity at about 300 years, and will live far beyond that. To sustain their enormous height, they develop huge buttresses at the base of their trunks.

Around Beech Forest, these buttresses were hollowed out and used in novel ways. One became a stable big enough to house five horses. Another formed the base of a racecourse grandstand, while others became temporary homes for early settlers.

Mountain Ash is an important tree for birds. They take nectar from the blossom, insects from foliage and bark and use hollows in the trees as nesting places.

Myrtle Beech (Nothofagus cunninghamii)

Nothofagus similar to this species were part of the Cretaceous forests when the Otways were formed.

Myrtle Beech is a major part of the rainforest flora, sharing the canopy with Blackwood. It may grow up to 30 metres tall in sheltered gullies and may live for 300 years or more.

As the trees age, the branches become festooned with trailing moss, while other epiphytes grow on the rough-barked trunk.

Fire has no place in rainforest. Any greater frequency than once in 1,000 years can be disastrous. Rainforest can only develop when there is an absence of fire.

Blackwood (Acacia melanoxylon)

An integral part of rainforest, it also grows along drainage lines on farmland and along streams. Unlike other Acacias it is a large, long-lived tree, reaching 30 metres.

It has dense, beautifully grained wood much sought for furniture and special fittings.

Blackwood flowers in early spring with pale yellow blossom. Seeds are produced in ‘pea-pods’ and when young are a favourite food of rosellas.

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