Explorers tree Hughenden

Sean Freeman

Here's just two shots, I've got heaps of one of the oldest heritage trees in outback Qld still alive
Now this is a bit of a hobby horse of mine so I'll try to stick to info on the photo and if anyone wants to we can run a long thread about all kinds of issues that spin off being envolved in trying to protect and maintain these older citizens.

I went out there with Steve to write a report for Flinders Shire Council on the tree health risk management options etc





The tree is Euc microtheca and is important to NW Qld white history since during the search for Bourke and Wills this tree was blazed as a trail marker for both the Landborough and Walker expeditions. Blazed in 1861, now to choose a tree for a marker you'd have to pick one that stood out so conservatively 40yr old tree 1861 - 2006 gives you 145yr old tree min.

Now before I get laughed out by our lucky Euro Arbs with their 500+yr old trees To have a tree of at least 150yrs in an area intensively cleared for grazing over the past 200yrs is pretty damn amazing.

Also this tree has had nothing good done to it in all that time in fact its had limbs lopped, wounds painted, hollows filled and trunk injected. This boy is one tough ombre





The outcome of the report was advice to put in place a small fence to deter people from entering under the canopy, both to protect roots and protect people from potential break outs. Mulch the entire protected area with mature woodchip from trees of the same species and the associates that grow along the creek banks out west, to re-inoculate the soil with beneficial fungi and micro organism for the soil food web..def no fertilizers. There's also a large lever arm not really visible on those shots that will over time fail as is a hazard beam but if the fencing is up and seating provided away from the target zone, with good informative signage re the tree, history and life cycle of older trees...no probs.

Really hope to get back out to Hughenden this year and check up on the old boy, after our rain he'll be laughing at all the sad fools he's seen born live and die through his years.

There's a pub in the town that serves really great German beer..dirt cheap groups of Euro backpackers bus through and stay there every year.

Or at least that what Steve told me, I was too busy writing notes:happy097

SF

Eric Frei

Yeah cool, out in the middle of bloody nowhere! There stands a poor ole tree on it's own. Talk about tough conditions, that first pic shows just bulldust under it.

Good to see some-one gave a chit about the bugger. Least they could have done for it was mulch it. Good on you. I don't think our overseas guests really know how tough the old outback is.

For those that don't know Hughenden is like 380kms inland from Townsville and population like 1600 people. They found dinosaur bones there.

This site I found wraps it up well as far as plant living conditions go. http://www.sgapqld.org.au/article6.html

"Hughenden is a hot, dusty little town in north-west Queensland. Its annual rainfall is only about 250mm. Its summers are particularly hot, with temperatures always in the very high 30 degrees Celsius and often well over 40 degrees C.

It is situated on a vast, treeless, black soil plain that stretches south to Barcaldine and west past Julia Creek. The local flora of the immediate area is grass, more grass, and bindi-eye. The town is noteworthy for its lack of trees which, if only they were established, would improve the quality of life there enormously.

We lived in Hughenden for two years and occupied a government house. When we arrived the yard was devoid of any vegetation (except the odd clump of Mitchell grass); so that summer temperatures inside and outside of the house were often unbearable. "

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Sean Freeman

Yep Ekka that about sums it up...funny though you know when white fellas first travelled out there must have been after a wet like the one were just having now, because they really believed the Mitchell Grass Downs would be as productive for cattle as the old country

Like I said they have a pub that serves dirt cheap imported German beer

SF

Eric Frei

I cant believe they actually got camels and went from Adelaide to Darwin etc ... difference to anywhere else was this is pretty much desert. Becks is a nice beer.

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Sean Freeman

Think I would get sea sick on a camel, get pretty crook up Eucs when the wind really picks up our groundy Tim calls the very wet and wild drop zone in those circumstances....

We have a bloke living here in Town who runs camel trips for tourists thru the red centre even been through North Africa we them couple of sites that I had visited myself years and years ago..funny what some people want to do on their hols eh?

SF

Done it

Sean, do you reckon this is the same tree?





The Landsborough Tree - Australian History

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Sean Freeman

no thats a picture of the now lost "Landsborough Tree" on the Albert River near Bourketown. It was destroyed by vandals in 2002:

The Queensland Relief Expedition

Remember that there were two major relief parties sent out after Bourke and Wills from Qld (Landsborough) and Victoria (Walker) and they both crossed each others routees a couple of times when you read the journals it is very hard to follow just where they were day to day the descriptions are somewhat confusing 'right hand side of the creek' etc... but they both blazed significant trees along the way...confusingly many of these trees have kept the same name like Landsborough tree, or explorers tree.

Done it

Pricks.

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philinsydney

I've seen the Burke and Wills tree near Cooper Creek; I think it's a coolabah ( E. coolabah, which is similar to E. microtheca ) as well.
From memory it's about an hour east of Innamincka.

philinsydney

Unfortunately vandals are always trying to evoke a response- that is the way they seek attention.
The more historic/cultural a tree is, the more outrage it provokes, and the more they get a thrill.

Sean Freeman

Hughenden is getting a heck of a lot of water right now, I'm hoping that the deck around Josephine doesn't get washed away.



One thing is for sure the grass lands will be green as after all this rain!! The flower show will be incredible.

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phill ellison

that a hell of a lot of water, I saw on the news here that you guys are getting lots of rain and bad flooding

Sean Freeman

Not too bad here in townsville, but Ingham has been badly affected, another 12-20hrs before they can begin the clean up...at least that low off the coast seems to be going away.

Its a pretty tight community up there and generally they look after each other really well, Charters Towers is also in trouble of the roads stay cut over the weekend, the RAAF will have to fly supplies out there.

I'm guessing that there must have been some similar weather events in the years preceeding the arrival of white explorers to the west, following this kind of rainfall the grasslands look amazing, you really would believe it was the land of milk and honey.

I wish I were here for longer (in many ways) would love to take a drive out there and photograph the views...but back down south on Mon.

philinsydney

Send some rain down our way, please!