A big old Eucalypt

We live near a light industrial area on Sydney's northern beaches.  At the end of my street is the eastern border of a large block of land that Roche owned from the early 1970s.  It is still known to the locals as "The Roche Factory" although Roche ceased operations here in 2007.

Most of the eastern half is quite heavily wooded with little development ever having occurred.  It is home to fruit bats, flying foxes, parrots, rosellas, brush turkeys, whipbirds, bandicoots and others including the accursed rabbits.  Owls also pass through and mate here (or at least we often hear them calling at night when the air is still or when we walk the dog after dark).  There is also some indigenous evidence on the site.

About 12 months before COVID appeared, I heard that development plans had been submitted for about half the site (the more built up western half).  I know what I know about the site from these submissions.  Some of the buildings are heritage listed as "High", the second highest level, including the Roche tower which when seen from directly above, has the geometry of the Roche logo.

The flora and fauna is not considered that significant - we shall see what happens later with this eastern half.

I found the following in one of the documents (Appendix_10_-_Report_-_Heritage_-_Statement_of_Heritage_Impact_-_Roche_site.pdf):

"The cottage and garden date back to Stephen Surusov's occupation, a gardener from Russian descent, while the trees in the eastern section of the site appear to date back to a 'botanical garden' created by Ronald Smyth King between the 1920s and early 1950s."

I've never been inside the fence - might have to break in sometime and have a peak.

Anyway, thankfully they did not go overboard with their plantings etc as there are still many substantial old growth natives.

The disused driveway being destroyed by the pictured tree services buildings from the early 1970s so I'm guessing it's not that old - probably less than 50 years - but it's still a great looking tree.  I decided to try a vertical Panorama shot (for the first time) and I quite like the effect....