Melbourne Tree Armagedon?

February 3, 2009 — 6 Comments

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The photo doesn’t do it justice (hard while driving) but I noticed today that around Hawthorn, Canterbury and Camberwell that all the trees are dropping their leaves….in January, and not Autumn.

One of the best parts of living in the Eastern Suburbs of Melbourne is just how beautiful the streets are. In Autumn, the trees lining nearly every street drop their leaves, in spring they grow back. But if they’re dropping their leaves now, they wont be come autumn.

A quick search of Google shows that the trees may survive, and that in drought European trees can do this; but likewise, they also drop leaves before they die as well.

The solution of course is more water, but we aren’t getting more of that any time soon. It’s ironic really to consider that water restrictions in WA are less severe than Victoria, and WA is the drier state with the lesser opportunities for dams and water capture.