Mystery Tree Identified / Boobialla

I’ve been watching a tree grow close to the house for some time now.
It had completely different foliage from anything around us.

And then it came into flower recently and was, as a result, easier to identify.
Myoporum insulare, also known as the common boobialla, native juniper or blueberry tree is a flowering plant in the figwort family Scrophulariaceae and is endemic to coastal areas of Australia.
It is a shrub or small tree which grows on dunes and coastal cliffs, is very salt tolerant and widely used in horticulture as a fast growing screening plant, hedge or windbreak.

It withstands coastal winds and drought and is hardy in well drained locations.
It is easily propagated from cuttings.
Our tree probably came here as a seed dropped by a passing bird.
At the end of summer this species produces smooth, round, purple fruits up to 1cm in diameter. They’re great for jams, jellies and preserves, but with an astringent sweetness.

Therefore eating berries fresh off the branch might not be everyone’s cup of tea.
Its aromatic, juniper-like qualities makes Boobialla an exciting local botanical for essential oils and gin.

Our attempt to grow screening plants along our western boundary has failed as any new growth has been consumed regularly by our resident kangaroos.

So I may try propagating this one as it seems the ‘roos have left it well alone.

Early Bushfire Season

After two months of no rain, we were finally drying out.

The downside was we were hit with high seasonal temperatures and worse, extremely high winds from the west.

Bushfires sprang up all over the state from last Thursday.

We had one 3km west of us and, with gusting 90km/hr winds, this was a real worry.

This was the exact scenario for the beginning of the disastrous 2019/20 fires.

Our contact in the Rural Fire Service said the fire was in inaccessible country and could not be fought on the ground.

They were using bulldozers to create firebreaks where they estimated it would emerge.

We implemented our evacuation plan.

Thankfully helicopters came in on the weekend during a wind lull and water bombed the fire for 5 hours until dusk.

They were back the next morning to finish the job.

Monday was a horrible day. Gale force winds. Total fire ban. 

We were obviously on edge.

But the 14ha fire did not escape.

The fire is now officially contained, but not out. We need a good downpour of rain for that to happen.

None is forecast for the next week with temperatures reaching the 30°Cs.

August 2024 across Australia was the warmest on record by a considerable margin, with a mean average temperature that was 3.02°C above the long-term average, while the 2024 winter was the second-warmest on record nationwide.
That's an entire month that was three degrees warmer than average when you factor in both minimum and maximum temps at over 100 Australian weather stations across each state and territory.

Strong winds in eastern Australia this week are being driven by climate change interfering with jet streams, the powerful high-altitude winds that encircle the globe.
Australia’s two jet streams – subtropical and polar – have combined over the continent’s south-east. This has caused strong winds on the surface of the earth that have brought a cold front to Victoria and southern NSW, and flipped between hot desert air and cool winds over Sydney and further north.

The subtropical and polar jet streams were usually split during the cooler months from about April to October. While they came together in summer, they usually sat over the Southern Ocean below the continent.
Latest research suggested that the extent of sea ice melting in Antarctica this winter had pushed the polar jet further north, while the marine heatwave in the tropics had pushed the subtropical jet further south. The result was that the two had combined over south-eastern Australia, amplifying the effect.

Climate change was making the jet streams move further south on average, and this could result in prolonged periods during which they sat below the continent and any heatwaves or dry spells in Australia would last longer. But climate change could also mean jet streams move around more often.

This all does not bode well for the future.