by Melbourne’s Significant Trees tell the story of the city; from its First Nations roots, to Colonial settlement, and on to the modern era.
The Significant Tree Register is maintianed across Australia by the National Trust, recording trees of historic imortance. Click here to view the full register, or to nominate a tree.
The following are a few highlights, from Melbourne’s entries.
Ngargee Tree
Junction Oval, St Kilda, planted 1200 – 1500
Before the arrival of Europeans, the area that became Melbourne was a very different place. The Yarra River followed a different course (read more about this, here), and was broken by a waterfall where the city would be built (and this, here).
Along the coast the land was swampy, inland were grassy plains broken by low hills. Across the landscape were River Red Gums: a tall, hardy, Eucalypt species, found throughout Australia.
Human beings began arriving around 50 000 years ago, these would eventually develop into the five tribes of the Kulin nation. Where the Melbourne CBD is today belonged to the Wurundjeri, south of the Yarra was the territory of the Boonwurung.
The Ngargee Tree is a River Red Gum on Boonwurung land, a short distance from the coast.
Ngargee means ‘ceremony’ in the local language, the tree was a focal point for corrobborees, inter-tribal meetings and other rituals. Thought to be at least 500 years old, and possibly 800, the tree has performed this role for centuries.
It is one of very few remaining in central Melbourne, that predates European settlement.
It was so significant to the Boonwurrung, it formed part of their native title claim in 2022 (the claim remains unresolved). Present day, it stands in parkland next to Junction Oval, near the onramp to Queens Road.
Scar Trees
Yarra Park, circa 1700
More significant River Red Gums can be found in Yarra Park, near the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG). Known as ‘Scar Trees’, these show Melbourne’s first nations people putting the trees to practical use.
The name comes from the ‘scars’ left in the tree’s trunk: oval shaped divots, carved out of the bark.
Bark was removed by first cutting it with a stone axe, then levering it off. It was used to make canoes, containers, shields and temporary shelters. Toe holds were sometimes made so the tree could be climbed.
‘Mapping Aboriginal Melbourne’
The waterways of Melbourne were rich with fish and shellfish, canoes were critical to maintain food supply. The shields were important for a number of reasons; used in inter-tribal warfare, they also served a ceremonial purpose, and were decorated with significant symbols and totems.
When European settlement of Melbourne began in 1835, its First Nations inhabitants were displaced.
Once the township was established, Aboriginal people were barred from entering. As the city expanded, they were then moved onto reservations like Coranderrk, near Healesville, further from the city.
The traditional lifestyle of these people, rich, varied and complex, was curtailed.
There are six scar trees left in the City of Melbourne. The two in Yarra Park are to the east of the MCG, each marked with a fence.
Royal Date Palm
Royal Botanic Gardens, 1839
European Melbourne was founded by agricultural settlers from Tasmania (then known as Van Dieman’s Land), looking for opportunity. Two groups arrived a few months apart in 1835; one lead by John Batman, one by John Fawkner.
The settlement was initially illegal. After a penal colony near present day Sorrento foundered in 1803, the colonial authorities in Sydney had ruled Port Phillip Bay unsuitable for habitation.
But Fawkner and Batman had chosen a more likely spot on the banks of the Yarra, and took their chances. As they hoped, the new township flourished: in 1839 it was officially sanctioned, and Melbourne became part of New South Wales.
New settlers arrived steadily.
In 1840, Godfrey Howitt and his family relocated to Melbourne from England. Howitt was an entomologist originally from Derbyshire, who took a position at Melbourne Hospital.
The Howitt’s brought a prefabricated wooden house with them, which they set up on Collins Street. While it was a modest residence, Howitt was a keen botanist, and quickly developed an elaborate garden.
Among the specimens he planted was a Royal Date Palm, first cultivated the year before.
In 1846, city superintendent Charles La Trobe opened the Melbourne Royal Botanic Gardens. This was situated on 2 hectares of swampy land on the south bank of the Yarra, previously disused.
Howitt’s botanic expertise led to him sitting on the governing committee. After his death in 1873, many of the plants in his personal collection were donated to the gardens.
His Royal Date Palm was among these; it has survived to this day, and can be found on Princess Lawn. The oldest plant in the gardens, it is also the oldest plant manually cultivated in Victoria.
The Separation Tree
Royal Botanic Gardens, deceased
For the first 12 years of its official, modern existence, Melbourne was subordinate to Sydney. This caused considerable consternation among the city’s leaders, who lobbied constantly for independence.
This was finally granted on 1 November 1850, by an act of British parliament. The news took 10 days to reach Melbourne, when it arrived it kicked off several days of jubilant celebration.
The separation proclamation was read in public for the first time on Flagstaff Hill, to an enthusiastic crowd (read more about this, here). People paraded through the streets, church bells were rung, flags and bunting were hung from public buildings.
Later in the day, the celebrations continued in the Royal Botanic Gardens, where a crowd gathered near a 400 year old River Red Gum near one entrance. This was the tallest tree in this part of the gardens, and so a natural focal point.
It would subsequently be known as, ‘The Separation Tree’.
While the Separation Tree found its way into Melbourne history, it would unfortunately come to a sad ending.
In the early 2010s, the Botanic Gardens were victim to a series of vandalism attacks. Perpetrators snuck into the gardens after dark, and damaged or removed several rare and valuable plants; some were even set on fire.
Among these was the Separation Tree, which suffered ring barking attacks in 2010, and 2013.
Despite the efforts of garden staff, these were severe enough to kill the tree. Its roots were pronounced dead in February 2015, and most of it subsequently removed.
A small part of the trunk was left in its original spot, along with a commemorative plaque. Saplings cultivated from the tree while it was alive, are today growing on Federation Lawn.
Chinese Honey Locust
Corner King and Bourke Street, 1857
Chinese Honey Locusts are native to China, and found throughout southeast Asia. A flowering plant with thick thorns, the tree’s small fruits are used in traditional medicine, and as a natural detergent.
But the tree’s primary use is decorative: it’s grey bark and green-yellow leaves making a pleasing aesthetic combination.
Somewhere around 1857, a Chinese Honey Locust was planted in central Melbourne, on the corner of King and Bourke Streets. The seed most likely came from a Chinese migrant, then in the city in large numbers due to the gold rush.
The location at the time was occupied by the state government’s Stores Department. This provided a critical service for the growing city, distributing tools, weapons, rations, uniforms and other important equipment.
The Stores office was a squat, bluestone building; the storekeepers planted a garden around it, which contained the Honey Locust tree.
The government would control the site until the 1970s, when it was sold for redevelopment. It sat vacant for a time, in the 1980s a large scale, modern building was planned for construction, by a consortium of local property developers.
The Chinese Honey Locust was well known enough that the development was designed around it, allowing it to remain in place. This was included as part of the advertising copy, when the building opened in 1987.
Today it stands in a small outdoor seating area. The only tree of its species in central Melbourne, this was also the first tree added to the Victorian Exceptional Tree Register, when it was established.
Miller’s Olive
Wesley Church, Lonsdale Street, 1875
The Wesley Church on Lonsdale Street was constructed in 1857. In its grounds is one of the city’s oldest trees: a gnarled olive, 150 years old.
The olive was planted in 1875 by Mars Miller, a veteran lay preacher. According to legend, the cutting originally came from Jerusalem, although this has never been confirmed.
Miller planted the tree for practical reasons, using its fruit to make his own olive oil. This was an uncommon item in early Melbourne, Miller’s oil was recognised for its distinctive flavour and high quality, and helped establish the industry here.
His tree is recognised as the oldest surviving olive tree in Australia.
The church and its surrounds have been updated a number of times in recent years, in 1988 the tree was relocated 25 metres from its original location. It is now stands in a small pedestrian throughway, on an elevated patch of grass, surrounded by benches.
Chinese Windmill Palm
Royal Botanic Gardens, 1881
Another native Chinese tree on the register is the Windmill Palm, one of the world’s most widely cultivated species. The key to its popularity is its adaptability: hardy and durable, it can thrive in a variety of climates, and needs only minimal care.
This specimen dates to the 1880s.
In 1881, Prince Albert and his brother George visited Melbourne, only the second British royals to do so. Their trip was unofficial: both teenagers, the princes were doing Naval duty aboard the HMS Bacchante, which had docked in West Australia.
Eager to see the colonies, the princes continued across the country themselves, stopping in Adelaide, Melbourne and Sydney.
While in Melbourne they were occupied with a packed schedule, including bush walks, kangaroo hunting, official receptions and garden parties, and a day at Randwick racetrack. They also visited the Botanic Gardens, where each planted a Windmill Palm to mark the occasion.
Prince George’s tree did not survive, but Albert’s is still alive and can be found at the edge of the lawn named after him. Recalling the visit fondly, the prince noted in his diary: ‘After England, Australia will always occupy the warmest corner of our hearts’.
The Federation Oak
Spring St Melbourne, 1890
Victoria’s State Parliament is a handsome, bluestone building on Spring Street, at the east end of Melbourne’s CBD.
In February 1890, it was host to the Australasian Federation Conference. The purpose of the conference was to test the idea of Federation: were the colonial states interested in combining to form a new nation?
In attendance was New South Wales Premier Sir Henry Parkes, one of the key drivers of the Federation movement.
Parkes would be delighted with the outcome. The conference delegates agreed that Federation would be beneficial, and all committed to send representatives to a future meeting, that would help design a new constitution.
To mark this successful result, Parkes planted an Algerian Oak in the Parliamentary Garden, behind the building. Algerian Oaks are a large, long lived species, native to North Africa, that were a favourite of the garden’s designer, William Guilfoyle.
As intended, the tree has thrived in its location. Known as the ‘Federation Oak’, it remains in place to this day, an ongoing tribute to the founding of modern Australia.
A short distance away are the Scar Trees at Yarra Park, a reminder of the land’s much more ancient history.
