Giant Trees in Australia

Australia is a land of amazing trees. Varied and strange, some of them appear as fanciful as something to be found in a Dr. Seuss book.

Australia has a National Register of Big Trees, where specifications, details, location, size and photographs of Australia’s champion trees are recorded.

Details of trees are sent into the register from all over Australia and noted trees are “immortalized” by their various features. Each tree is given points which are determined by a formula developed by American Forests, with an Australian interest in reciprocity between the two countries in appreciating the world’s biggest trees.

Points are determined by the circumference of a tree in inches, plus the height of a tree in feet plus one-forth of the crown spread in feet. An example at the Register of Big Trees is a gum tree with a circumference of 362 inches, a height of 252 feet, and a crown spread of 150 feet, is computed as: 362 + 252 + 1/4 of 150 = 652 points.

One of the biggest big trees is a tree called alpine ash gum topped stringy bark “troll,” scientific name,eucalyptus delegatensis ssp. tasmaniensis in the town of Geeveston. It has a circumference of 720 inches, is 187 feet tall, and has a crown of 72 feet, garnering a total of 925 points.

But it’s just a whippersnapper in comparison to the eucalyptus messmate stringybark “Mt. Cripps,” scientific name eucalyptus obliqua, a 450 year old tree at the Cradle Mountain Visitors’ Centre near Reynolds Falls Reserve. It has a circumference of 807 inches, a height of 213 feet and a crown of 114 feet, accruing a total of 1049 points.

The current reigning tree, though, may be the Mountain Ash “Big Foot,” scientific name, eucalyptus regnans. With a circumference of 805 inches, a height of 265 feet and a crown spread of 65 feet, it is the proud possessor of 1087 points. This tree, too, resides in Geevston, and is 450 years old.

Australia is full of wonders, just to see these trees alone would make it worth the trip!