Spring Outings – Warburton Redwoods

I recently had a photographer friend visit for a few days, we had planned a photoshoot on Sunday with a few models, not too far from me and on Saturday there was originally planned a large Cosplay event at the Warburton Redwoods (I went last year and it was fabulous). So Sue was keen to go to that as well. Sadly for unknown reasons a few days before the Cosplay event was cancelled. We decided to still go there, as Sue had never been.

We drove out there on a pleasant Spring day, nit too warm, nor cold, the sun was shining. We spent some time wandering amongst the tall trees and down to the creek. Sadly my camera which had been giving me some problems of late, seemed to become terminal. The photos I took are very poor, on automatic and badly focused on the whole. A factory reset helped momentarily and then it all went south. Quietly fuming with a BIG expensive shoot planned the next day; location, models etc.

I was not worried about the images from the forest, have been there plenty of times and could go again any time I wanted. Sadly it seems that more and more people now know about this idyllic spot. Now it has become a tourist attraction, perhaps great for the local economy, not for the forest. Many people want to see it but have no appreciation for what it actually is. They are beauty and nature, there is calm and peace and serenity (well there was), now it is yelling kids and adults running through the underbrush, breaking off bits of tree, damaging and destroying saplings and undergrowth, kicking in wombat holes. Moth gowled at a young child who was bashing a particularly old tree with a stick yelling “look how much I can damage it” to her parents…disgusting.

Sadly this is not the forest I stood in complete awe of several years ago. Now it is a mecca for tourists.

~ Julz