Not much moving up here since May, I hope we have a good flowering soon. The dry is certainly affecting life in North Queensland.
I wouldn't be worried, Hanrahan. We haven't really had a time in the past couple of years here when there's been nothing in flower in the bush. After May this year there were still iron bark out and then the flow with the white malaleuca, which enabled us to extract. I don't think the malaleuca finished when some big gums have come out fully in flower. I'm not sure what they are called, but they are a large tree, white trunk. Something like a poplar gum but with straighter leaves. We did a paddock inspection today and apart from those gums, the grey box is starting. Every couple of trees has some flowers, and there are plenty of buds to erupt yet. There are big strips of box here and near your place too. There are also 3 flowers on the native orange. I don't know how good pandanus flowers are for bees, but they are fruiting so must have flowered recently.
If trees couldn't cope with 6 months of temperatures above 35 C and no rain then there'd be no vegetation here. I think the rain sets some species off and the dry sets others. It is very normal not to rain at this time of year. When I first got bees though, conditions were worse than now.
Sometimes in the next couple of months, the prickly pine, beefwood, black tea tree, and broadleaf iron bark come out. But this is not every year. There is something out along the highway. I thought it might be prickly pine, but there is no sign of flowering yet.
Lone