Appreciating our grand old trees this National Tree Day
National Tree Day is Sunday 28 July.
It’s hard to imagine a landscape without trees and yet they are often taken for granted. Have you ever considered how important large old trees are to our lives and landscapes?
The Riverland’s ‘apartment tree’ – Murraylands and Riverland
Many large trees are the ancient reminders of times long past when the landscape was a different place. They often provide extremely valuable habitat such as hollows, cracks and crevices that become homes for many creatures.
An old river red gum (Eucalyptus camaldulensis) at Murbpook in the Riverland, called the apartment tree by some, is home to at least three pairs of vulnerable regent parrots, as well as barn owls and corellas.
The many hollows within the tree trunk and branches teem with life, earning its reputation as nature’s apartment block.
It can take as long as 100 years for a tree to form hollows, and these hollows remain valuable habitat long after the tree has died. This is just one reason why we should value large trees.
Old Man Barker – Hills and Fleurieu
Scattered across the landscape, giant lone trees stand stoically within paddocks and provide protection for those who shelter under them.
Paddock trees provide shelter and shade for livestock and habitat for native creatures, improve soil health and provide nectar to pollinating insects, all while absorbing carbon dioxide from our atmosphere and replacing it with essential oxygen.
They act as stepping stones for many bird species to move across the landscape.
Paddock trees are often hundreds of years old and can be culturally significant to First Nations people, bearing the marks of shields, canoes and coolamons. These trees are often stunningly iconic features within a landscape.
One distinctive paddock tree within the Hills and Fleurieu landscape is ‘Old Man Barker’, a large old river red gum (Eucalyptus camaldulensis).
Once part of bushland long since cleared, Old Man Barker now stands as a lone paddock tree looking over the encroaching sprawl of Mount Barker near the South-Eastern Freeway.
It is estimated to be up to 300 years old, and has withstood storms, lightning strikes, bushfire, land clearance and urban development. It’s rugged and majestic form holds many nesting hollows and when in flower it supports several species of native wildlife.
Old Man Barker is iconic to the area and one of a handful of ancient river red gums in the Mount Barker area.
The Herbig tree – Northern and Yorke
Large ancient trees can have important cultural significance to First Nations people and provide historical reminders of when South Australia was first settled.
One of these trees is known as the Herbig tree. It’s named after German emigrant Friedrich Herbig who lived in the hollowed out river red gum in Springton, which is famous in the Barossa Valley.
In 1855, the 27-year-old dairy worker set up his home within the 6-metre wide tree that later also housed his bride Caroline and their first two children.
What is less well-known is the indigenous connection to the ancient tree, which is estimated to be up to 500 years old.
It holds significance to the area's traditional custodians, the Peramangk people and bears coolamon scars.
Peramangk elders, some of Friederich and Caroline’s decendents, Northern and Yorke Landscape Board staff and Barossa Council representatives came together recently to discuss the tree’s cultural significance and how this should be recognised.
The Dig tree – SA Arid Lands
Another tree reminds us of the tragedies that occurred during early exploration. The Burke and Wills Dig Tree is a mature Eucalyptus coolabah, more than 250 years old standing high on the northern bank of the Bulloo Bulloo waterhole on the Cooper Creek, east of Innamincka in the state’s Far North East.
It marks the site of the camp where Brahé and his men waited four months for Burke and Wills to return from their attempt to cross the continent to the north and back. Certain that the explorers had perished, Brahé’s team left on 21 April 1861. Nine hours later, on the same day, Robert Burke, Williams Wills and John King arrived at the abandoned Dig Tree Camp. A carving on the tree read DIG. The supplies buried there were basic, but sustained life.
Too weak to head south in pursuit of Brahé’s party, Burke, Wills and King rested at the tree to recover strength before heading south to cross the Strzelecki Desert. After a gruelling few days staggering beside their dying camels, the men headed back to the Cooper Creek. Burke and Wills died soon after. King survived, aided by local First Nations people, and was found by a search party in September 1861.
A unique blue gum woodland -- Eyre Peninsula
Some places are lucky to have many large trees and some have very few, but some locations are special because they contain something unique to its place and not found anywhere else.
Eyre Peninsula is home to a species of blue gum (Eucalyptus petiolaris) found nowhere else in Australia.
These trees grow to become large, rough and twisted, and are usually associated with low-lying areas along watercourses.
Forming an Eyre Peninsula Blue Gum Woodlandecological community which is nationally endangered, these trees support more than 240 species of plants, many occurring at the ground layer.
This ecological community also provides habitat to at least 15 native species of mammals, 53 birds and 41 reptiles – 26 of which are rare or threatened. Eyre Peninsula has several unique tree species that are only found there, including the endemic Darke Peak mallee, the Cummins mallee and the crimson (or Port Lincoln) mallee.
Greening our neighbourhoods – Green Adelaide
Large trees are vital to urban environments as well. While often providing a habitat refuge for wildlife in suburbia, trees also provide people with valuable services too.
Large trees offer cooling shade and are nature’s answer to evaporative air-conditioning, pumping water into the air via evapotranspiration to reduce the surrounding air temperature.
Research has shown that leafy neighbourhoods with more trees are better for people and their overall health.
Conserving existing trees in our urban settings as well as increasing vegetation plantings will help to reduce the impacts of extreme temperature and create a more pleasant living environment.
Green Adelaide has been busy consulting with people in metropolitan Adelaide about creating a greener city by incorporating trees and more green spaces. Consultation on the draft Urban Greening Strategy closed in June 2024 and the feedback is being considered.
We will always need trees. They are essential to life and offer so many benefits. If you have some space in your garden or on your property then consider plant a tree or two.
State Flora can provide advice on appropriate native tree species and visit your local garden centre for advice on non-native plants. The best time to plant a tree was yesterday, the next best time is today.
