Tarah from Tully

We arrived at Tully, or more precisely, Murray Upper, on last Saturday and have settled in to some work around the farm.

On the trip here we found that the devastation from cyclone Yasi is still very evident, especially in the towns of Tully and Cardwell. There would certainly be more around in the likes of Mission Beach, Tully Heads, etc, but we haven’t been exploring there yet.

In both of these towns there are businesses which have been forced to close, for example the local Baker in Cardwell. there are still houses without rooves and there is tree debris still to be removed or burned and there is the constant sound of chainsaws, excavators and trucks carting the cut trees away.

The trees in the pine plantations have been stripped bare and are leaning over, although they are currently being harvested so not all is lost. There is another area where there was a hardwood plantation, apparently 10 to 20 metres high, which is completely bare, nothing remaining.

Yesterday we went to a glass business in Tully who lost not only their business premises in the town but had a tree through the roof and may still have to be demolished and they are trying to operate the business from home.

The recovery of the eucalypts is amazing, the trees have been broken to half their normal height, in most cases but the leaves are returning and the trees seem to be recovering. I was speaking to a local on Sunday and he pointed out that the leaves on many of the Eucalypts were a lighter shade of green and that these trees will die.  He pointed out that in a cyclone the trees twist, twisting the fibres of the trees and they eventually die, furthermore, the twisting of the fibres makes these trees useless for any logging.