Hi everyone. I hope you and yours are doing well. We have had more rain yesterday - yay!
As promised last week, today I bring you some more pics from our annual visit to the Golden Valley Tree Park in Balingup, Western Australia. I know for those of you in the northern hemisphere, the autumn leaf fall is a common yearly occurrence for you. Not so in Australia, where our trees hold onto their leaves. So to have a place like the Golden Valley Tree Park to visit is fabulous for us.
We have been making an annual visit the tree park for a number of years. The park is about an hours travel from our place, depending if we stop somewhere on the way. You go through the town of Ballingup before you get to the tree park, so that is a great place to grab a coffee and cake, and often on the way home we stop at Donnybrook to buy some fruit - they are in the middle of the orchard region. We usually take a picnic, and have morning tea when we get there, then do one of the loop trails, come back to the car and have our picnic lunch, then do the other loop trail before heading home.
We have been in drought since October, and it was sad to see how dry the paddocks at the tree park were. You can see a comparison below - I know we were a few days early this year - but we hadn't had any rain either.
I've brought you images from the Golden Valley Tree Park before.
The Golden Valley Tree Park is a sixty hectare landscaped park set in the picturesque hills of Balingup. The heritage listed site has a collection of international trees that was begun over one hundred years ago, and is now the largest arboretum in Western Australia. The land was bought by the Government in the late 1970s and park was established around 1980.
We were a little early this year - but there was enough colour to satisfy me - and it was a lovely day for a walk and a picnic.
This is a persimmon tree
And an avenue of Chinese pistachios that were looking a little sad this year
my new favourite - Zelkova serrata from Japan
To learn more about the Golden Valley tree park you can go to their web page
Autumn season of change - 2016
Autumn in the Golden Valley tree park - 2017
Autumn colour in Western Australia - 2019
Autumn in Western Australia - 2021
Balingup Golden Valley Tree Park - 2022
The area that comprises the park was first settled in 1898 by Frank and Margaret Cleverland. Their home was built of bricks made from clay dug from nearby Yungerup Spring. The original 20 plantings of exotic species by Olwyn Cleverland during 1930-1940's has grown to an impressive world collection of over 500 species, represented by over 3000 individual specimens. The Park, which is heritage listed, is maintained by volunteers and sponsorship. From its first plantings over 100 years ago the the Golden Valley Tree Park is now the largest arboretum in Western Australia.
Nuts on the Oriental Plane tree -
There are places to walk, places to sit, and places to picnic - the Balingup Golden Valley Tree Park is a treasure of the south west of Western Australia
