During the heavy wind on Saturday a large branch (30 cm diameter
at its thickest) was blown from a Eucalyptus Blakelyi (?) in our front yard.
The break contained about 30% of dead wood (by area) where
it had joined the tree. Several years ago Galahs had gnawed all the bark in a
large patch where the branch had joined the tree. It appears that the absence
of bark had allowed water to enter the joint of the tree and/or caused the
timber to die. The branch was solid timber except for the dead wood at the
junction with the tree (I cut the branch up and there were no large holes of
any sort for a couple of meters from the join). There were a number of other galah
gougings on the tree but none in joints.
Does any one know if the galah gouging is likely to have caused
the weakening of the tree? Is it a common factor in causing gum branches to
fall? We’ve had 2 large branches fall of in about 20 years. The
other had no similar damage.
Roy
