A hardened drop of tree sap hangs from a tiny branch of a tree in Lerderderg State Park, just an hour outside Melbourne. It’s my friend Madeleine’s birthday and we’ve headed out into the countryside for a walk that finds us among trees that are bejeweled with many such hardened droplets of golden sap.

Madeleine tells me she used to collect hardened sap like this when she was a kid, but for me, this is the first such time I have found myself picking treasure from trees. At first, I was just photographing them, but after a little, while I started to collect them in the same way I used to collect glistening sea-soaked pebbles from the beach when I was a kid.

What will I do with this handful of gold? I have no idea. But then I never had plans for any of those shiny sea-soaked pebbles either. They’re simply treasure of the moment, their value later is of little importance.