Monday, May 4, 2009

#014-365 Artificial

This is a rainforest, and all the trees are real but it is just a very small area of the the Redcliffe Botanic Garden, which has been artificially nurtured to produce what used to be here naturally, until Redcliffe became the first settlement in Queensland, then the natural forests were decimated.

When the preliminary work was being done to set up our own little botanic garden, evidence was found that showed that the area which is now designated as Rainforest had in fact been a rainforest many moons ago. So detailed studies were undertaken to reestablish it as near as possible to what it was, and boy was that successful!

We know it was successful because it has been adopted as the roosting place for a colony of Flying Foxes - Fruit Bats that drive local gardeners crazy and create an absolute mess underfoot, but really add to the authenticity of this "Artificial" rainforest.

9 comments:

Chesney said...

Nice image, love the lighting through the trees!! Great image for the theme!

Rachel said...

Great story and such thick vegetation. It's nice to see rainforests restored instead of destroyed, even if it is just in a small section of botanical gardens.

mljrbg said...

Great series of photographs you posted while I was on hiatus. My favorites are Snow and the bee photographs. Hope Snow stays away from the bees!! Your commentaries are always so thorough and of course entertaining.

barbs said...

Ron, what a great picture. You can almost feel the dense vegetation reaching out. I hope this botanical garden keeps growing - it is beautiful!

~Val said...

Isn't it something how one little change can create such havoc...even though we might be trying to right a long-ago wrong?

I love the dense look of this but the thought of fruit bats gives me the willies...

annalarssonphotography said...

Great image for the theme!

Clara said...

Great story, Ron. I am glad that they are restoring the rain forest . . . even just a little.

Candyce said...

wow what an interesting story

Anonymous said...

A nice take on the theme - I like that it's real yet artifical!