This beautifully crafted article was published in the Colac Reformer, 16 February 1935. From 1935 to 2026, these weather patterns on the 'Ridge' in recent weeks ring true.
Current Topics - Looking Down on a Fog
Visitors to Beech Forest who were abroad until nearly midnight on Wednesday were privileged to witness a most remarkable scene, and one which is possible only because of the altitude of that place. For several days, heavy rain had fallen, and the top of the range was enshrouded in mist. These conditions prevailed on Wednesday, with the exception that little rain fell. At night there was a dense fog, and though there was a good moon, it was not much evidence. The fog disappeared from the hilltop at about 11.30, and the moon shone from a cloudless sky. In the valleys and lower levels, however, the fog still persisted, and looking north from the balcony of the Ditchley Park Hotel, the scene was one of infinite beauty. For the thirty miles towards Colac, the fog lay in billowy folds, in the distance appearing like a field of snow. On intervening ridges the tops of tall dead trees stood out, resembling the masts of ships, while the pine trees on the very top of the Beech Forest hill appeared as if etched in black against the gleaming background of snow white. Gradually the nearer fog lifted, revealing the clumps of trees and shrubs in the gullies adjacent to the township, while here and there the shoulders of distant hills were bared. But the deep valleys were still drowned in the sea of mist, great broad bands of white marking the courses of the streams between sombre hills rendered the darker because of the contrast with the moon-drenched fog banks. On the cleared area in the foreground, the moisture clinging to the grass blades, silvered by the moonbeams, gave an impression of a heavy frost, which the mildness of the temperature belied. The night was perfectly still, yet some unsuspected currents of air must have been drifting up the valleys, causing the leaves of beech and blackwood and of musk and myrtle to shiver and rustle like the patter of light rain drops on distant hills. The only other sounds to break the silence were the regular calls of two tiny tree frogs engaged in one of their interminable duologues.