Leaning tree, Coopers Shoot

Yesterday at the Byron Writers Festival was so wet that, just before midnight, the organisers advised that the next 2 days were cancelled for safety reasons. So today, having booked accommodation for 2 nights, we explored the local area. 

The district name of Coopers Shoot puzzled me. Google tells me that it comes from the early timber cutting industry. The first colonial settlers to come here, from the 1850s, were seeking highly-prized and valuable red cedar trees described as large, straight-trunked …. that yielded valuable, beautiful, hard, red, termite-resistant wood. Their technique included: in steep areas and areas with cliffs the logs would be slid or rolled, sometimes end over end, down “shoots” to the flat country below. This gave rise to place names such as Coopers Shoot.

Later: I’ve added a sunset photo, taken from the front verandah of our Coopers Shoot cottage, looking across the pond where we’ve been watching a platypus foraging.