Autumn: Trees’ Annual Costume Change

The stereotype that comes to mind about autumn is that forests and woods become a riot of colour, before the leaves fall and carpet the ground beneath them. In Australia, we tend to experience something similar during jacaranda season in our spring. When the trees are in full, lilac bloom, you know summer’s heat and humidity are just around the corner. Not exactly autumn’s herald, that’s for sure.

It is further south that autumn is more visually obviously. Bright, in Victoria’s Alpine High Country hosts an annual 10-day autumn festival with a resplendent gold, orange and red leafy backdrop. In Bowral, in the NSW Southern Highlands, the Moidart Nursery welcomes visitors to marvel at the autumn spectacle of deciduous golden elms, chestnuts, red oaks, copper beech, cypress, tulip trees and giant sequoias.

Tasmania’s Mt Field National Park boasts enormous plant diversity and, at higher elevations, beautiful alpine vegetation. Mt Field, an hour’s drive from Hobart is where you’ll find the deciduous beech (Nothofagus gunnii) which grows to about two metres tall and happens to be the only cold climate winter-deciduous tree in Australia. During late April and May, it bursts with colours ranging from rust red to dazzling gold. Of course, anywhere you go in Tasmania, you’re sure to be treated to a kaleidoscope of autumnal beauty. From the flame red maples in Hobart’s Cascade Gardens to the majestic Lombardy poplar and elms of Port Arthur, the island state will satisfy your desire to witness trees at their most vivid.