Everyday I drive on a freeway or motorway and join that random group of vehicles all going at 100kph or more across 2 or 3 lanes. Going any less than this speed means you find yourself being tail-gated or worse, but that is another story. Along the way (eyes on the road of course) you see quite a diverse range of plants, with some being planted to plan but more often than not, it is just the usual assortment of feral weeds. Looking at weeds can be really quite disheartening when you see the way they have degraded the landscape. Embankments of Lantana stretching over 50 square metres or vines such as "Balloon" or "Madeira" smothering tall Casuarinas, are my least favourite sights. However other plants stay imprinted on your mind long after the journey. What springs to mind immediately ......the golden wattle in bloom right now beside the Hume Highway with purple Hardenbergia and Clematis in summer; the Bottlebrush, "Bird of Paradise" and cascading Bougainvillea on the drive into Sydney from the airport; the statuesque Agaves and the robust young Moreton Bay Figs on sections of the M7. The figs on the M7 are juxtaposed against a dramatic curved flyover which always reminds me of a Jeffrey Smart painting.
This post is to remember the great Australian historian and art critic Robert Hughes who has passed away in New York at the age of 72.
This is very informational post & beautiful... Thanks
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