New England holiday trip, part 1

We are making use of school holidays to go on a little trip to Australia's New England area, i.e. the north-east of New South Wales. This is the first time we visit it. We have been making our way there slowly over Saturday and Sunday, and on Sunday evening we were generously welcomed to Armidale by botany professor Jeremy Bruhl, his family, and fellow botanist Ian Telford. We will explore waterfalls, forests and lookouts of the New England high country over the next few days.

The above is the view from Moonbi Lookout back towards Tamworth, the last really large town we passed through before reaching Armidale (it is too far away to be visible though).

Today I dropped into the N.C.W. Beadle Herbarium of the University of New England, of which herbarium Jeremy Bruhl is the director. Read more about this scientific collection, its importance and history on its website.

An impressively floriferous and sweetly smelling shrub we saw on the way near Premer is this Santalaceae. I am reasonably sure it is Choretrum candollei.