Cape Tribulation Nth Queensland Dec 2002

As part of my Masters research project on plant height, I collected data in the Daintree Rainforest in Northern Australia at Cape Tribulation. Cape Trib is a famous tourist detsination, not only for its rainforest but also for beaches and the great barrier reef.

The Canopy Crane: A highlight of the trip was using the Australian Canopy Crane Research Facility - a 50m construction crane permenantly located in the rainforest for research purposes. I used the crane to collect leaf and branch samples from tall tree species. Samples from shorter shrub species were collected in the surrounding understorey on foot.

Another site for my research was the tall mountain ash (Eucalyptus regnans) forests in south-eastern Australia. These forests are the tallest in Australia (average height of 70-90m at this site), with this species of Euclaypt being the tallest flowering plant on earth. Unfortunately there was no crane on hand to access the treetops, thus warranting a different method of ascension- rope. With the assistance of some proffessional climbers we ascended into the trees to acquire samples from above. The pictures below are for taken ascending a 85m tree. I made it 65 m up the tree, leaving the remaining 20 or so meters to the professionals!