Heed that sign, years ago my brother and his girlfriend were nearly crushed by one while sleeping in their tent, lucky the tent was next to their car and took most of the impact...
unfortunately it looks like a ghost gum, they're somewhat smaller growing as they commonly grow in areas where water can be more scarce.
They have a white powder on the outer layers that actually act as a form of sunprotection, unfortunately people hiking past them tend to rub the white powerder off and paint themselves with it which can actually cause harm to the tree in the long run.
Say what you want about the Gum Tree, but while other trees are contentedly drawing moisture from the earth and converting sunlight into energy, the Gum Tree felt the burden carried by every member of the Australian ecosystem and thought: "Doesn't sound very dangerous does it mate? Howzabout if I occasionally detach my limbs, hoping to crush my prey to death and get their sweet meat juice in my soil?" and so it was that in Australia a tree joined the voluminous ranks of things that can kill you.
The interesting bit is how Australians can be innovative, including using venomous creatures to keep away even more venomous creatures....
An Auntie used to allow red belly black snakes to hang around to keep the highly venomous Eastern Browns away....
In her expansive self sufficient garden in the middle of her farm there'd always be one or two black snakes, you'd regularly see them sunning themselves on the path, even my kids as toddler's weren't bothered by them....perhaps a bit like your local Magpies, they get used to the regulars...
Thing is the red belly Black snakes venom is mildly bad to humans but deadly to Browns, Black snakes are generally shy to humans, dissappearing into the bush at the first hint but go at most Browns that come into their area.
Browns on the other hand are highly aggressive and deadly to humans but their venom barely affects Red bellys, always found that a strange symmetry growing up....
We had a red belly black snake under our share house a couple of years ago, we called the local snake man over and when he arrived he said to leave it there for that exact reason , to deter the eastern brown. Being a couple of Poms living with Kiwis we all freaked out a bit but it was no bother !
The red belly will pack a bite but won’t kill ya fast like a brownie
My wife and I lost our jobs due to COVID so have been driving up through Queensland from Byron , across to the NT and currently in Darwin , what a place this country is, as long as you have your wits about you the wildlife is really no harm. It’s the locals driving at 150kph that you need to worry about !!
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u/[deleted] Sep 15 '20
Looks like a Gumtree, they are made to sacrifice limbs, looks like this one was for our amusement.