Large Old ‘Hero’ Trees
Large Old Trees are the superheroes of our landscape. They provide habitat and food sources for threatened birds, mammals and reptiles and they are vital landscape connectors.
These elders of our landscapes are disappearing at an accelerated rate. This is leaving the over 75 species in Central Victoria that need hollows in a dire housing crisis.
Startlingly, the United Nations has recognised that modern extinctions are occurring at 1,000 times the natural rate. With Victoria being the most cleared state in Australia - and having lost 20 mammal species in the past 200 years - Biolinks Alliance’s dedicated work to protecting Large Old Trees (and their hollows) has never been more important.
Our Large Old ‘Hero’ Trees pilot project involves citizen science mapping and monitoring program. It also involves educational field days, conservation interventions and developing a plan for on–going Large Old Tree protection works.
“This is essential work to help save the homes and lives of our native species like our adorable friend the phasgacole.”
Our native animals are in a devastating housing crisis
Large Old ‘Hero’ Trees occur throughout the landscape on grazing lands, along creek lines and roadsides. Mostly they comprise a range of eucalypts such as: grey box (Eucalyptus microcarpa), yellow box (E. melliodora), white box (E. albens), red ironbark (E. tricarpa) and red stringybark (E. macrorhyncha).
Many of Large Old Trees predate European arrival and could be up to many hundreds of years old and provide food and habitat resources vastly superior to widespread younger regrowth.
Unfortunately, most have already been wiped out, but those that remain are often surviving under enormous stress and gradually dying back and only rarely allowed to regenerate. However, because it takes hundreds of years to replace these trees in terms of ecological values, landscapes continue to decline and become less hospitable for once widespread and common birds, mammals, reptiles and even amphibians.
Mapping Large Old ‘Hero’ Trees in the Heathcote region
We want to map the Large Old Trees in the paddocks, forests and on roadsides in the Heathcote region so we can take steps to protect them.
If you have a Hero Tree on your property, know of one nearby, or drive past one on the roadside - we want to hear from you. Please include:
A single photo of the tree
Indicate if its on your own property - yes/no
The accurate location of the tree:
On your phone or tablet, open the Google Maps app
Touch and hold an area of the map that isn’t labeled. You'll see a red pin appear.
You'll see the coordinates in the search box at the top.
Anything else you would like us to know
Your information will allow us to develop a plan for their conservation in the Heathcote region.
Put your Large Old ‘Hero’ Tree on the map
How can you help? Use this interactive tool to map Large Old Trees in the Heathcote region.
Large Old ‘Hero’ Trees education program
Our Large Old Tree education program focuses on educating primary school students throughout the Heathcote region on the importance of Large Old Trees.
The first session held at Tooboorac Primary school saw students from grade 1 to 6 participating in the program delivered by local Heathcote educator, Natalie Will.
An interactive session was held first, with students learning:
How to identify the different species of eucalyptus trees
How to measure trees to determine approximate age
The benefits Large Old Trees for our ecosystem - including soil quality, habitat connectivity, their hollows, cracks and crevices, as well as the abundance of food sources they provide for native animals.
Student then helped to identify the types of native animals that rely on Large Old Trees - such as phascogales, yellow-tailed black cockatoo, barking owls, gliders, and importantly, the critically endangered swift parrot who rely on the box-ironbark forests of the Heathcote region during their migration in winter.
Following the interactive session students were taken to a nearby paddock to spend the afternoon sitting in the grass and drawing two large old trees identified as a grey box (Eucalyptus microcarpa) and yellow box (Eucalyptus melliodora).
Large Old ‘Hero’ Trees education program at your school
If you would like Biolinks Alliance to present at your local school, please contact us.
(info@biolinksalliance.org.au)
Photo: Light Story (credit: Samantha Slicer)
Download a Large Old Trees poster
Download and draw your local hero tree
“These sessions are so important for young children in the Heathcote community, who already have such a brilliant knowledge of local native animals, to really engage with the environment around them and understand the impact and importance of trees in the landscape”
Examples from the region
Drone shot of the redgum towering above the surrounding trees and landscape in the setting sun. Image: Sasha Dobson
Hero Paddock Tree
This Red Gum, stands on a farm north of Heathcote. The farmer who loves the tree, is confident that is the biggest Red Gum in the Heathcote region and hazards a guess that it may also be one of the biggest remaining in Victoria. It’s crown has a massive 35 metres diameter. While age is difficult to estimate, it is easily pre-dates European arrival and could potentially be older than 800 years of age. It looks healthy, showing no die back or limb loss. It is likely tapping into a reliable underground water source.
Springs Plains Forest Grey Box Hero Tree
We came across this giant in the forest on Springs Plains Road in the Spring Plains Forest. It is an enormous Grey Box, surrounded by many much smaller re-growth trees. We wonder why this fellow was spared the timber cutting for the gold mining, railway sleepers and firewood. It gives a sense of how the forests have been changed under European management. Less than 3% of Victoria’s Box-Ironbark forest is what is known as old growth. The impact this has had on the birds and animals is huge - it takes around 80 years for a tree hollow to form.
Looking up into the canopy at an ancient relic. Image: Sasha Dobson
Measuring Diameter at Breast Height (DBH) of a tree allows us to determine the rough age of the tree. Image: Ellie McKenna
Cameron O’Mara - Heathcote Local to Landscape Facilitator
For more information contact Cam. (cameron.omara@biolinksalliance.org.au)