Tree of Knowledge Monument Barcaldine Queensland

Eric Frei · 25th February 2009, 08:04 PM

Quote:

Locals have nicknamed the $8 million, 18m structure "Barky's box" and "the gallows" as they grapple with the size and meaning of the monument.

LOL, you decide, but I think it was a huge waste of money and bloody ugly!

Wollemi pine, Tree of Knowledge projects cost $17m | The Courier-Mail

Also, interesting to note the a spin off story in the same article.

Quote:

The $11.72 million loss on the wollemi pine scheme is an embarrassing blow for the State Government, which spent the past decade predicting booming export sales for the Smart State project after winning the licence to sell the rare species in 1998.

Eric Frei · 11th April 2009, 01:31 PM

Couple of other mentions on the forum about this tree, place etc.

Significant Trees

Significant Trees

However new research out that the shearers strike and the forming of the Australian Labour Party all beneath this tree is mere myth.

Why Labor has been barking up the wrong tree | The Courier-Mail

Quote:

Why Labor has been barking up the wrong tree

Peter Morley
April 11, 2009 12:00am

THE role of the famed Tree of Knowledge in the birth of the Australian Labor Party has been confirmed as mere myth by new research.

Historians Peter and Sheila Forrest also say there is no evidence shearers met under the Outback Queensland ghost gum during the strike of 1891 - widely regarded as a defining moment in Australian political history.

The revelations come as a $5 million memorial to the tree under which the striking shearers were said to have sown the seed of the Labor movement is to be officially opened at Barcaldine next month.

But the historians say the Tree of Knowledge is still of great significance as a symbol of "the land of the fair go".

The Forrests were paid $30,000 by Barcaldine Regional Council to research the strike of 1891 but say they could find no evidence the six-month stand led to the formation of the ALP, even though the party's official website says the movement began that year.

In a book to be released next month, the Forrests say nine months of intensive research could find no reference to meetings at or near the now-dead ghost gum outside the railway station or that the tree was the birthplace of the ALP.

They say this is unfounded myth driven by the defeated shearers who were imaginative and compelling storytellers who made an exception to the general rule that history is written by the victors.

The Forrests said there were abundant records of meetings of shearers striking for better conditions being held at the main strike camp near Barcaldine but none said they met at or near the tree.

And the ALP was a synthesis of many things that happened in various places.

"But no one place, not even the Tree of Knowledge, can exclusively claim the honour of being the birthplace of Australia's most enduring political party," they write in their book Bush Battleground.

The Forrests said this would probably disappoint some "true believers" but they would be consoled if they reflected on the fact the tree had an even stronger claim to being of great significance to Australia.

"Over the years, the tree has come to symbolise the hope that Australia would become and would remain the land of the fair go," their book says. "No symbol, no theme in our history, could be more important than that."

Yesterday Mr Forrest said while much of that credited to the tree was myth, it was "important because people think that these things happened".

"And because they think that, it has shaped attitudes and beliefs," he said.

Mr Forrest said that when the council commissioned the work he told Mayor Rob Chandler he had misgivings about the evidence sustaining the mythology.

"I said that if the council wanted me to write a fairy story about this tree it had better get someone else but I was told to write it the way I saw it," he said.

Cr Chandler, whose ratepayers are also contributing to the state and federal taxpayer-funded memorial to the tree which will be officially opened next month, accepted the Forrests' findings.

"I suppose it puts the tree in its correct perspective - it just bore silent witness to those events of 1891 that saw riots and 2000 police and army personnel in the town to protect strike breakers," Cr Chandler said.

"The strikers did march past the tree on several occasions in what was probably the first of the Labour Day marches, a tradition which still happens today. Claims the shearers met under the tree and said 'lets form the ALP' have been disputed and correctly so.

"The Forrests have confirmed what we have known but we still say the Tree of Knowledge was the birthplace of the ALP."

Former Federal politician, Queensland ALP state secretary and party historian Manfred Cross said the authors were correct and Barcaldine was not the birthplace of the ALP, which was formed after federation.

"I am quite satisfied that what the Forrests put down on paper on the basis of evidence is quite accurate," he said.

Mr Cross said former ALP state president, the late Denis Murphy - who was an outstanding Labor historian - once described the Tree of Knowledge as the Barcaldine Myth.

"I told Denis not to go out there because they would tar and feather him," Mr Cross said.

"I said if he wanted to use any description he should describe the tree as the Barcaldine Legend."

The significance of Barcaldine was that at the end of the strike when the leaders were sentenced to three years' hard labour, unions turned to political action.

By 1896 the Queensland colonial parliament included 14 members identified with the Labor movement through the Australian Labor Federation.

Three years later federation members formed the world's first Labor government - but it lasted only six days.

Sean Freeman · 11th April 2009, 03:29 PM

No different to many if not most other social or cultural symbols that accrue weight and pathos well and truely above anything that could be factually attributed.

Still think the monument they are building/have built is nuts!!! Some arts student project gone wrong imo.

Just goes to show if you can get main roads on side, or meet their requirements there are very few limits on what can be done!

Eric Frei · 11th April 2009, 05:10 PM

LOL, it is flamin hideous to look at.

A decent fake tree would have done the job well, just seems to remind me of some sci-fi monolith in space.

Drouin Tree Service · 11th April 2009, 11:46 PM

Very well designed lol,i bet the architect/consultants made a packet with that one.

philinsydney · 19th April 2009, 11:08 AM

There is a similar myth about the "Explorers Tree" in the Blue Mountains inland from Sydney. Generations of schoolkids were told that Blaxland, Wentworth and Lawson (the first Europeans to cross the mountains) inscribed their initials on the tree. It turns out that that was probably a myth started in the 1890s when tourism started to develop in the area. No-one has ever photographed these initials or provided any evidence from historical sources.
The tree died decades ago, and is now a stump with a fence around it. Still, this dismal stump is capable of arousing strong emotions.

Eric Frei · 22nd April 2009, 08:12 PM

Couple of youngsters got busted stealing branches of the treated tree.

Two sentenced over iconic tree 'prank' | The Australian

Quote:

Two sentenced over iconic tree 'prank'

April 21, 2009
Article from: Australian Associated Press

A DRUNK prank in which branches from Queensland's historic Tree of Knowledge were stolen has landed two people with community service.

Thomas Oliver Maurice Stokes, 19, of Mackay, and Kayla Louise Mott, 18, of Barcaldine, pleaded guilty to one count each of stealing in the Longreach Magistrates Court today.

The pair admitted to stealing branches from the heritage-listed ghost gum in Barcaldine, which is credited with being the birthplace of the Labor Party.

Both received sentences of 75 hours community service to be completed within 12 months.

Mott was also ordered to return the branches stolen on Sunday, April 19 from the construction site of a $5 million monument being built to honour the tree, which was mysteriously poisoned and died in 2006.

The branches had been treated with a preservative and were to be used in the memorial.

Lawyer Ian Dempster told the court it had been a prank after Stokes and Mott had been drinking.

Stokes worked as a sub-contractor on the site.

Magistrate Damien Dwyer said it was a childish and immature prank.

Two other men are expected to appear in court in May over the incident.

Eric Frei · 27th November 2009, 06:13 PM

Bugger me, now the eye sore won an award!

Tree of Knowledge memorial wins award - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

Quote:

Posted Fri Nov 20, 2009 2:00pm AEDT

The controversial monument to the historic Tree of Knowledge in western Queensland has won national recognition.

The $5 million memorial was opened earlier this year in Barcaldine to mark the site which is known as the birthplace of the ALP.

It has won the grand prize in the 2009 Australian Timber Design Awards.

Barcaldine Mayor Rob Chandler says the award is a huge credit to the designer Brian Hooper and the construction team.

"I suppose it is the enormity of what these guys have done with the timber and the timber design and the amount of recycled timber they've used in the design," he said.

"There are over 4,000 individual sticks of timber ... nothing like this has been done ever before in the world where an architect has tried to recreate the canopy of a tree using hanging timbers."

11th April 2009, 03:29 PM	#3
Sean Freeman Veteran Heritage Status Join Date: Feb 2007 Location: Townsville Nth Queensland & Gold Coast Sth Queensland Posts: 1,981	Re: Tree of Knowledge Monument Barcaldine Queensland No different to many if not most other social or cultural symbols that accrue weight and pathos well and truely above anything that could be factually attributed. Still think the monument they are building/have built is nuts!!! Some arts student project gone wrong imo. Just goes to show if you can get main roads on side, or meet their requirements there are very few limits on what can be done!

11th April 2009, 05:10 PM	#4
Eric Frei Admin - Owner Palm & Tree Services in Brisbane Join Date: Jan 2007 Location: Brisbane Posts: 12,996	Re: Tree of Knowledge Monument Barcaldine Queensland LOL, it is flamin hideous to look at. A decent fake tree would have done the job well, just seems to remind me of some sci-fi monolith in space. __________________ Protect your rights to work - Join Australian Tree Association My businesses:- Qualified Brisbane Palm and Tree Lopping \| Stump Grinding Brisbane \| Brisbane - Gold Coast Consulting Arborist

11th April 2009, 11:46 PM	#5
Drouin Tree Service Veteran Heritage Status Join Date: Jan 2007 Location: Australia Posts: 1,728	Re: Tree of Knowledge Monument Barcaldine Queensland Very well designed lol,i bet the architect/consultants made a packet with that one. __________________ Drouin Tree Services \| Excavator Hire - Drouin and SE Gippsland \| Landclearing Melbourne

19th April 2009, 11:08 AM	#6
philinsydney Semi-mature vigorous tree Join Date: Nov 2007 Location: Sydney Posts: 110	Re: Tree of Knowledge Monument Barcaldine Queensland There is a similar myth about the "Explorers Tree" in the Blue Mountains inland from Sydney. Generations of schoolkids were told that Blaxland, Wentworth and Lawson (the first Europeans to cross the mountains) inscribed their initials on the tree. It turns out that that was probably a myth started in the 1890s when tourism started to develop in the area. No-one has ever photographed these initials or provided any evidence from historical sources. The tree died decades ago, and is now a stump with a fence around it. Still, this dismal stump is capable of arousing strong emotions.

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