Perisher

Along with a bunch of cousins and extended family I spent Christmas 2016 in the AAC Lodge at Perisher Valley. Patches of snow remained on the ground- amazing considering it was close to mid-summer- and while not enough to be classified as a White Christmas sufficient enough for a scenic backdrop; especially further up the road at Charlotte's Pass and the lookout to Mount Kosciusko.

One of the most disconcerting things was to see large swathes of snow gums bleached white with dieback. Little is understood about the cause, which is thought to be linked to climate change. At this stage the thinking is that trees under water stress, due to reduced snow and spring rain combined with higher summer temperatures, become more susceptible to infestation by native longicorn (or ‘longhorn’) beetles. The beetles seem to prefer to lay their eggs in water stressed trees which don’t produce the gum that would otherwise drown the larvae. Once hatched the larvae burrows into the tree and feeds between the bark and cambium layer (and deeper) and their frass-filled tunneling ringbarks branches and trunks of mature trees, eventually killing them. See Snow Gum Org.