I can't see anything to distinguish this red gum from the thousands of others, but after a lifetime spent in the bush, retired forester Joe Murphy knows what he's looking for.
As we draw closer it becomes clear that this tree is an important reference for the forest. It's trunk has been marked with deep cuts with the numbers 74 and 93.
The marks are metres above the forest floor and Mr Murphy can recall marking the lines with an axe, after the 1974 and 1993 floods that swept through the forest.
Sadly, on the day we visited, this part of the forest was looking not wet, but very dry, almost ashen and parched for water.
This is the iconic Millewa part of the largest red gum forest in the world, which is now attracting more attention because it is bisected by a stretch of the Murray River known as the Barmah Choke.
Some hydrologists believe the choke is shrinking in capacity and governments are now looking at the implications on river flow and how much can be pushed down the river.
Mr Murphy is unhappy with the watering regime in recent years and points out apparent contradictions in structures within the forest which prevent the free passage of water which should help give the forest a drink.
With hundreds of gigalitres of water being set aside for the environment under the Murray-Darling Basin Plan, it would be a pity if it can't get through.
Mr Murphy knows about watering the forest; for years he delivered his own watering plan, initially just off his own bat, and then later with a nod from the former Murray-Darling Basin Commission.
His habit of diverting occasional high flows into the Millewa forest led to him once being labelled as ‘the biggest water thief in NSW’ — and he wears the accusation with pride because he has seen the forest prosper when it is given water at the right time.
The MDBA now co-ordinates a watering strategy in conjunction with federal and state bodies and assesses its success with annual report cards.
Mr Murphy has occasionally been labelled as a `greenie’ because of his regard for the bush, and copped criticism for supervising tree harvesting, but his relationship with the bush is a complex one that goes back to his younger days.
One of his first memories was standing in 15 cm of floodwater flowing over a white, sandy road in the 1939 forest flood, and seeing a small turtle the size of a 50 cent piece swimming nearby.
“During primary school holidays I would travel with my father and four or five other sleeper cutters on the tray of a small truck with our legs dangling over the side.
“They would cut red gum logs — with crosscut saws and broadaxes — into sleepers for the railways.
“The return trip would be sitting on top of about 20-odd sleepers still with our legs dangling over the side,” Mr Murphy recalled.
Mr Murphy spent 10 years working in the family sawmill at Picnic Point.
In 1962 he joined the NSW Forestry Commission as a marketing foreman in the Millewa bush.
He spent a lot of time walking in the bush. Walking to identify and select trees to be felled for milling, walking to grade those logs for royalties, walking to brand any trees damaged during felling operations and finding trees that had defects for the sleeper cutters.
It was in the mid 1960s when he first saw the forest become seriously stressed by hot and dry conditions. The red gums’ leaves were dull green and obviously not healthy.
Mr Murphy looked to the history of the forest and realised that levies had been built along the NSW side of the Murray River, cutting off access which had been historically available through a myriad of ‘runners’, small creeks and depressions leading into the forest, and replaced by a smaller number of regulators.
The forest seemed to recover after three consecutive floods in the early 1970s, leading Mr Murphy to speculate on how the forest could be more effectively watered.
In the 1980s, he and his colleagues in the Forestry Commission got together to build new structures, change road heights, install culverts and create some embankments and channels to allow the water to spread over a larger area.
Did it work?
Join us next week for Mr Murphy's explanation of what happened.
Also, read about Mr Murphy's warning that some of NSW could soon become part of Victoria due to a fascinating new path being carved by the Murray River.
