Cool temperate rainforests dominated by ancient Myrtle Beech (Nothofagus cunninghamii), Sassafras (Athersperma moschatum) and Blackwood (Acacia melanoxylon) is a magical ecosystem found in moist gullies across the Great Forest National Park. This vegetation type is remnant of what was much more abundant across the supercontinent Gondwana that existed 500-200 million years ago. The super continent consisted of South America, Africa, Madagascar, India, Antarctica, New Zealand, Australia, southern parts of New Guinea and bits of New Caledonia in one big land mass. Fossils of the Myrtle Beech (a dominant flowering rainforest plant type) have been found across many of the existing southern continents, including Antarctica! This suggests the climate once favoured this vegetation class and over a period of geological time the climate and landscape has changed dramatically causing a retraction of these now fragile ecosystems. As you drive across the landscape you will move through a mosaic of vegetation types with Cool Temperate Rainforest typically hugging waterways and being distinguishable by having a dense over story of Myrtle Beech and a ground layer dominated by mosses.
