BAL Assessments Blairgowrie, Rye and Sorrento December 2025

BAL Assessments in Sorrento, Blairgowrie and Rye often include assessments of the stands of remnant Moonah woodlands. Melaleuca Lancelota commonly known as Moonahs, are slow growing and can look like Tea Trees from afar.

Their knarly twisted trunks fashion by their response to growing in the prevailing winds have a similar bark to coastal Tea Trees. The flowers however are quite distinctively different between the 5 petal Leptospermum flowers and the staminal claws of the Melaleuca flowers. The crowns of the Moonahs are densely packed with leaves. The leaf glands which are dotted over the leaf exude Melaleuca oil. Beautiful and aromatic as they are, they are also highly flammable.

The Moonah Woodlands can form a dense canopy and therefore are usually shady underneath. This shady microclimate naturally hosts a range of fire retardant species such as Native Spinach Tetragonia Tetragonioides and Seaberry Saltbush Rhagadia Canoleana.

These Moonah Woodlands can also become infested with the purple flowering Myrtle leaf Milkwort Polygala Myrtifolia which was introduced from South Africa. The risk of the Moonah Woodlands can be reduced by maintaining the native fire retardant species and by the reduction of woody weeds and long grass that dries out in the middle of Summer that adds to the fuel load and can ladder a ground fire up into the trees.