Quite possibly the first rule of camping in Australia, is not to be lured by the shade of an old gum tree. Eucalyptus trees have a nasty habit of shedding their limbs and especially in hot dry weather. The difficult part is in trying to determine how far away is safe enough as it is hard to judge the height of a tree.
On an extremely hot weekend a few weeks ago we found ourselves a nice spot in the shade of some small young saplings and settled in for Happy Hour drinks with friends. Sure enough we heard the all too familiar summer sound of “Crack, Thump”! A limb from a large tree had dropped on a car narrowly missing people, pets and caravans. Half of the car’s bonnet was crushed and the radiator was seriously damaged.
itchingforhitching 
My daughter was camping with friends at Myrtlefird a few weeks ago when a huge branch came down and narrowly missed her car. Crushed a tent. Thankfully no one was in it. And it wasn’t even a gum.
LikeLike
Oh that was lucky. What surprised us was that we’d been looking at that section of trees the day before and discussing which of them looked dangerous. The one that came down was one we thought looked safe. You just never know.
LikeLiked by 1 person
True, you just never know.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Wow, that was close, I didn’t know that. My brother had a large eucalyptus taken down in his back garden here in the UK as it was so close to the house, but I don’t think he would have known what a fortunate decision that was.
LikeLike
I’ll bet he has less to clean up now. Because they aren’t deciduous they drop leaves all year round. Though I must say my neighbours old oak is pretty messy too.
LikeLiked by 1 person