Grasstree already flowering. Stout black trunk topped with a jaunty crown of green around a triumphant flowering spike. White gum with thick insulating bark falling away in shields, having done its job. Ironbark, blackened by life, pale in the deep furrows near the living cambium. Stringy bark resists fire, just the top milimetre charring.
Epicormic buds sprout a new crop of leaves.
Paper-thin black bark of Persoonia survives the fire, deep red beneath, insulating the living stem inside. Dense clusters of new shoots sprout from titree and boronia stumps. A myriad of wattle seedlings already with phyllodes edge on to the sun above feathery seedling leaves. The soil, open to the rain, shows rivulets from a summer storm. Gravity always wins, ironing out the earth.