GEOGRAPHIC EXTREMES SOCIETY
AUSTRALIAN RECORDS
Largest Trees
The Black Friday bushfires of February 13, 1939, will go down in history for many reasons. In human terms, the loss of numerous lives and infrastructure was devastating, but also the fires decimated the ecology of south-eastern Australian forests. The burden of the devastation wrought by the fires fell on the giant, mountain ash forests in Victoria, from which they’ve never recovered. It’s these mountain ash trees which previous editions of the Guinness Book of Records stated as the tallest trees ever to have lived, a claim which is unsubstantiated.
The title of the tallest tree in Australia, and indeed anywhere in the world, is a highly sought-after prize. The greatest trees weigh in at over 1,200 tonnes, whereas the largest animal that has graced Earth, the blue whale, comes in at just a tenth of this weight.
Tallest tree in the world
The tallest species of tree, without a doubt, is the giant redwood from California in the United States of America. Californian redwoods are broken into two separate species, the coastal redwood and the giant redwood, with the coastal species being the taller of the two and the giant, more-inland species, being the more massive in volume. The tallest coastal redwood is the Hyperion tree, towering at a world record height of 115.9 metres.
Hyperion Tree crown. Image famousredwoods.com
This isn’t the Hyperion tree. Doctored image which many sites use when discussing Hyperion Tree. Image: Unknown source
Largest Tree in the world
The largest giant redwood is known as General Sherman, reaching another record of 1,487 m3.
General Sherman. Largest tree in the World. Image: Flying Horse Design
To walk amongst these forests is a true delight. The understorey around redwoods is usually quite clear, making it easy to look up and marvel at the surrounding trees’ majestic heights and girths. The most massive of the redwoods have a few things in common. Firstly, they occur in moist gullies where there is easy access to water for their roots, which is essential for them to survive droughts and fires. Growing in gullies also means they don’t stick their heads too far above the surrounding canopy, protecting their crowns over the many hundreds of years they take to attain the status of forest giants. Crowns of giant trees emerging too high from the surrounding forest canopy can act as a beacon for lightning strikes and are threatened by high winds rushing across the treetops.
Redwoods are ancient, giant, pines, closely related to Cypress pines. The relict population in California had other sister populations in the recent past in Europe, Asia, and further into the past in Australia and New Zealand. Redwoods planted in New Zealand today have recorded the fastest growth rate for their species on the planet.
Tallest Flowering Plant
In 2019. Discovered researchers found a giant yellow meranti tree that measured over 100 metres tall growing in Sabah, on the island of Borneo. Yellow meranti trees have the potential to grow up to above ninety metres in height regularly, and the University of Oxford researchers measured one specimen at 100.8 metres. They quickly pronounced this as the tallest of all flowering plants in the world, thereby surpassing Australia’s mountain ash trees. The giant yellow meranti, named Menara, the Malay word for ‘tower’, is described as being extremely symmetrical and like other giant trees is sited on the side of a well-watered slope.
Menara tree. Sabah. Tallest flowering plant in the world. Image: Stephanie Law.
Tallest tree in Australia
As the tallest of all Australian trees, the famed mountain ash is a eucalyptus species, found only in pockets of moist forest in Victoria and Tasmania. The largest live specimen, known as the Centurion tree, reaches 100.5 metres.
Centurion Tree. Tallest tree in Australia. Image: ABC
Australia’s Centurion tree, measuring 100.5 metres high, is the first officially measured eucalypt tree to surpass the one hundred metre barrier, and it is still growing. On average, mountain ashes reach sixty to seventy metres in height, but if the conditions and genetics allow, this species attains the greatest height of all Australian trees. While the mountain ash has claimed most Australian tree records, the moist forests of Tasmania and Victoria also support other giant eucalypt species which can attain a height of 80 metres plus. These include the Tasmanian blue gum, manna gum, giant stringybark, shining gum, mountain grey gum, and gum-topped stringybark.
Historically, Victoria was home to the tallest and largest mountain ash specimens. A succession of destructive fires since European settlement has changed all that resulting in the death of the great stands of that state’s mountain ash. Today, it is Tasmania, that is the current abode of the tallest and largest specimens of this species.
Brett Misfud is a tall tree specialist in Australia and he has found that most of the mountain ash giants have quite specific requirements regarding where they need to grow. In order to survive for centuries before eventually maturing to become a giant, they prefer sloping gullies with a southerly to south-easterly aspect, good basaltic soils, a mandatory minimum of 1,200mm of rainfall per year, and they need to come from good genetic stock.
Brett Misfud is waiting for the Victorian mountain ash giants to again surpass Tasmania’s stands of mountain ash. He sees it as only a matter of time until a Victorian tree once again reclaims the title of Australia’s tallest and largest. Almost all of the Tasmanian trees have dead stags, branches resembling discarded antlers, at their top, and all seem to be exceptionally old. Due to Victoria’s somewhat warmer climate, their mountain ash grows faster than their Tasmanian counterparts, and it should only take another half-century, at current growth rates, to see if Brett is correct. He believes that the next giant tree records will probably come out of Sassafras Creek in the Dandenongs, or around Beenak in the Yarra Ranges. In the meantime, we have to pray that they will survive Australia’s current fire regime.
For trees to surpass the 100-metre barrier, they need to have impeccable genes that favour the complex physics of capillary action and leaf transpiration, that delivers nutrients and water from the roots to the furthest reaches of the plant. The water and nutrient pathway is known as the Soil Plant Atmosphere Continuum, referred to by the acronym SPAC. Scientists in the United States have shown that at about 110 metres gravity wins the battle over water cohesion within the tree’s capillary system. Contrary to what many people believe, tree roots don’t pump water up to leaves, but they rely on transpiration from leaves to draw water from below. As you can appreciate, there are physical limitations as to the height from which leaves and the SPAC system, can pull water up from the ground.
Giant trees also need to be in the right fire shadow area, where fires will only penetrate every 200 years or so. They must have the best mixture of understorey plants, site aspect, availability of water and, most importantly, be protected from huge storms as they poke their heads through the surrounding canopy. Over 200 – 300 years that it takes to become a giant, a Tasmanian tree will be subjected to over a thousand violent lightning storms, annual Antarctic cold fronts sweeping through, and scores of El Niño and negative Indian Ocean Dipole events. Pretty much, all their ducks must be in a row for them to be lucky enough to become a giant.
Historical giants
Over the years there have been many claims of giant trees in Victoria. The great colonial botanist, Baron Ferdinand von Mueller, claimed to have personally measured one tree near the headwaters of the Yarra River at 122 metres. A Dandenong nurseryman and personal friend of the good baron, David Boyle, claimed to have measured a fallen tree deep in the Dandenong Ranges at 119.5 metres. He also reported a tree in the Otway Ranges which he reckoned was over 170 metres. Von Mueller’s early records also mention two trees on the nearby Black Spur Range, one alive with a height of 128 metres and another fallen tree said to measure 146 metres. These are phenomenal sizes, but when others went to verify their existence, these trees suddenly disappeared and couldn’t be found. Boyle’s largest tree, when inspected and measured had shrunk to a mere 67 metres. Not only had Boyle exaggerated the height, which in dense scrub can be difficult, but reprehensibly he had doubled the circumference of the tree at chest height. When asked to verify his claimed tree heights, von Mueller was either too busy to assist, or his directions to their locations came to naught. Generally, it comes as no surprise that people measuring forestry giants have been prone to exaggeration for a long time.
After much controversy regarding the veracity of tree heights, the Victorian Colonial government decided with much fanfare to offer a reward to anybody that could authenticate the height of these giant mountain ashes. The year was 1888 and Victoria was at the height of tall tree mania. The Government proclaimed that anyone who could lead forestry officials to a tree exceeding 400 feet, which equates to 122 metres would be able to claim a £20 reward. Quite substantial when the average worker received around £1 per week. On top of this, an extra £3 for every additional 5 feet of height for each tree was offered. Despite the massive public interest and potential financial gain, not one person could claim the reward. It gives us some insight into the reliability of the claims of Von Mueller and Boyle. A Mr James Munro, a member in the Victorian Parliament who was later run out of the colony for corruption, was a prominent believer in the 400-foot tree myth, and he increased the reward to £100 for any tree officially measured at this height. The prize was on offer for only a short period, but not one person came forward with evidence of any supergiant trees.
Historically, there have been a few giant trees which have been so-called ‘officially’ measured, so for due diligence; we should inspect these claims.
Ferguson Tree
A giant mountain ash, known as the Ferguson Tree, was named after William Ferguson, the first Overseer of Forests, and Crown Land Bailiff of Victoria, who claimed to have measured it personally. In the summer of 1872, William Ferguson ventured into areas not yet penetrated by woodcutters and axemen, around the big scrub near Healesville. On finding a giant tree fallen on the ground and spanning a ravine, he wrote:
Some places, where the trees are fewer and at a lower altitude, the timber is much larger in diameter, averaging from 6 to 10 feet and frequently trees to 15 feet in diameter are met with on alluvial flats near the river. These trees average about ten per acre: their size, sometimes, is enormous. Many of the trees that have fallen by decay and by bush fires measure 350 feet in length, with girth in proportion. In one instance I measured with the tape line one huge specimen that lay prostrate across a tributary of the Watts and found it to be 435 feet from the roots to the top of its trunk. At 5 feet from the ground, it measures 18 feet in diameter. At the extreme end where it has broken in its fall, it (the trunk) is 3 feet in diameter. This tree has been much burnt by fire, and I fully believe that before it fell it must have been more than 500 feet high. As it now lies it forms a complete bridge across a narrow ravine.
According to Ferguson, the Watts River is the land of the giants, befitting of Gulliver’s Travels. That makes this astounding 500-foot tree, 132.6 metres tall. But if we examine the details here, there are some major discrepancies. The evidence of Ferguson’s find only came to light when Forestry Victoria made a study of the archives in 1982. An amazing 110 years after Ferguson documented the tree and, more surprisingly, Ferguson hid its discovery while Von Mueller and the Victorian government were searching for giant trees in the 19th century. No photos or other corroborating statements exist to help verify these findings. For some unknown reason, these documents seem to have laid buried in the heyday of the public’s fascination for tall trees. I do have other issues with this record. Measuring a dead tree which has smashed its way to the ground can lead to some exaggerated lengths, as the crown shatters on landing and flattens like a pancake. Branches which may have extended outwards, point upwards upon crashing to the ground. The absence of any supporting evidence and it being dead and lying on the ground removes it from a reliable list of records for the tallest tree. In my opinion, Ferguson’s tree may be a case of nothing more than wishful thinking.
Cornthwaite Tree
For our second ‘officially’ measured giant, we come to the Cornthwaite Tree, which grew near Thorpdale in Victoria’s, Strzelecki Ranges. In 1881, according to accredited surveyor George Cornthwaite, he measured a 112.8-metre tree by clinometer. In the grand tradition of timber getters, George Cornthwaite’s brother cut the tree down as George pulled out his surveyor chains and remeasured it. As the crown of the tree flattened and another 5 feet appeared, making this tree 114.3 metres. This was a metre shorter than the tallest tree known, the coastal redwood, Hyperion tree in California. We would all like to believe in the existence of giant trees, but when we examine the evidence, again the proof looks very flimsy.
Strangely, the evidence of Cornthwaites record was only published 35 years later, in July 1916 in the Victorian Field Naturalist, A Mr Brady called for anyone who knew of a tree taller than 400 foot, to which request Mr Cornthwaite, surveyor of Colac replied:
Dear Sir, – In reply to yours of the 6th inst., in reference to the big tree measured by me in Gippsland, I beg to say that I cannot find the old notes taken at the time, but I am quite sure as to the measurement of the length. The tree was growing on allotment No. 1, parish of Narracan South, but 2 miles from Thorpdale, and was in a dense forest of tall trees, but this one was manifestly taller than the surrounding trees. The measurements were taken during the Christmas holidays of 1880. I measured the tree as it was standing by means of a clinometer and chain and made it 370 feet. Afterwards, when it was chopped down, I measured it – 375 feet, allowing for the stump. The tree was a Victorian Mountain Ash or ‘Blackbutt’ and, where it was spring-boarded, about 12 feet from the ground, was about 6 feet in diameter. About 240 feet length of the barrel was worked up into* palings, &c, and all the material for a six-roomed house was obtained from it. My brother also worked a paling tree in the same locality afterwards, which was regarded as the champion paling tree of Gippsland. The palings were worth £100 at the stump. My brother had the stack of timber photographed.
(Signed) G. CORNTHWAITE.
Cornthwaite told Mr Brady that he’d misplaced his official notes, but that he was sure as to the exact height of the tree. Once again, the evidence is missing. As a government surveyor, Cornthwaite must have been aware of the search for giant trees. Not only was this a giant tree, but from George Cornthwaite’s measurement, it was also exceptionally skinny tree compared to modern-day giants. Von Mueller never mentions this tree, nor the Ferguson Tree, and no further evidence of the existence of the Cornthwaite Tree has come forth.
Location of Cornthwaite Tree on hilltop. Image: RJ Andrews
One would expect images to survive of befrocked ladies from Thorpdale in their Sunday best with timber-getters standing upon their fallen beast to commemorate the occasion, as we see with many other felled giants of old. Either way, some believe in the recollections of Mr Cornthwaite and a politician placed a sign and memorial cairn commemorating the spot where the stump once stood. One hundred fourteen metres away, they placed a peg to signify where this mythical tree would have lain.
Visiting the Cornthwaite Tree site provides some extra insights. The location is about 5km from Thorpdale on McDonald’s Track and sits on top of a hill surrounded by bare paddocks. All around the surrounding countryside, all you can see is paddocks of grazing sheep and dairy cattle interspersed with potato fields. It wasn’t only the lack of documentary evidence from George Cornthwaite, but the site specifics aren’t right. Sure, there is volcanic soils around the site, but as we’ve learnt with the vast majority of giant trees, whether they be redwoods or meranti, they all occur on sloping gullies close to watercourses. We have learnt that gullies are better watered, provide a fire shadow and allow the tree to grow taller without poking its head too far above the surrounding canopy. Which side of the hill it grows can also influence the chances of the tree becoming a giant.
Brett Mifsud the authority on tall trees states, giant mountain ash prefers southern and eastern-facing aspects. It’s because mountain ash, like the nearby temperate rainforest, prefer the better soil moisture retention offered by these slope aspects, as opposed to a hot summer sun that invariably bakes the soils on northern and western slopes.
Gerraty Tree
There is another mountain ash worthy of consideration, known as the Gerraty Tree. After the 1939 bushfires, a forestry worker who was later become the Commissioner of Forests, Finton Gerraty, combed the easy to penetrate, blackened scrubs looking for fallen mountain ash giants. Gerraty came across a fallen tree at Noojee that measured 103 metres, and that was with its top branches missing. In my opinion, this tree, even though it had fallen, is the most credible of all the assertions of trees surpassing 100 metres in Victoria.
Largest Australian Tree
Trees named Arve Giant, Bigfoot, and Rullah Longatyle all died in the 2019 fire event. The Kermandie Queen survived the fires, retaining the title of the largest tree by stem volume in Australian forests. The Kermandie Queen has a girth measuring an impressive 21.65 metres at breast height and a stem volume of 340m3. Indeed remarkable, but looks insignificant when we compare it to General Sherman, the giant redwood from Sequoia National Park, with an amazing volume of 1,487m3. It makes Australia’s ‘queen’ sound rather puny.
Record Stump Size
Records also abound regarding stump size. My best information as to Australia’s largest stump comes from Bulga in Victoria’s eastern Strzelecki Ranges. It reigns supreme, with a circumference of 34 metres and a diameter of over 10 metres. It was also another casualty of the Black Friday bushfires in 1939.
Oldest Trees in Australia
Just how old are these trees? The subject of oldest trees can be a contentious one. Stands of old-growth eucalypts usually refer to forests harbouring trees between the ages of 200-400 years of age. But these are nowhere near the oldest trees in Australia. Trees like the Antarctic beech on the Lamington Plateau of the Border Ranges in Queensland are mighty, old trees.
Huon Pine. The oldest tree in Australia. Image: The Culture Concept
For this category, there’s one tree that outlasts all the others in Australia, and that’s Tasmania’s Huon pines. They have been famously lauded as one of the world’s finest timber species and been highly prized by shipbuilders for two centuries. The Huon pine is a fascinating tree: it may be Australia’s oldest living species, but it’s also among our slowest growing as well.
There is a curious population of Huon pines growing in a depression on the side of Mount Read on Tasmania’s rugged west coast, one of the wettest areas of the island state. Precipitation is recorded here for around 282 days a year, and the region quite possibly has more days a year with rain than any other location in Australia. The stand of Huon pines on the slopes of Mount Read is quite different from that further south. For starters, all the Huon pines that remain in this isolated pocket are all male plants. Scientists believe that they have been growing in-situ for the last 10,000 years, and probably much longer. The all-male stand here survives by asexual reproduction, that is by branches falling off and taking root, or by roots sprouting new trunks. It has been doing this since before the most recent ice age, which saw the Huon pine survive the comings and goings of glaciers and long, frigid winters before the current interglacial allowed it to proliferate again. All the trees in this grove are genetically identical, telling us that they sprouted from a single and exceptionally virile, male specimen. This bachelor tree successfully colonised the side of Mount Read for thousands of years. And every spring its male cones release their wind-borne spores in the hope they will find female Huon pines, which unfortunately for this unlucky single, are nearly 100 kilometres away.
Tree Records
GES Record: Tallest Tree in the world – Hyperion tree. Coastal Redwood. Redwood National Park, California. 115.5m (Source: Famousredwoods.com)
GES Record: Tallest flowering plant in the world. Menara Tree. Danum Valley, Sabah, Malaysia 100.8 metres (Source: University of Oxford)
GES Record: Tallest tree in Australia – Centurion tree. Near Geeveston Tasmania 100.5 + 0.4 metres (Source: Yoav Bar-Ness)
GES Record: Largest Tree in the world – General Sherman Tree. Giant Sequoia. Sequoia National Park, California. 1,487 m3 (Source: famousredwoods.com)
GES Record: Largest tree in Australia – Kermandie Queen. Near Geeveston. Tasmania. 340m3 (Source: Derek McIntosh)
GES Record: Oldest tree species in Australia – Huon pines. Tasmania (Source: Sustainable Timber Tasmania)
The Geographic Extremes Society welcomes any input as to the veracity of these records and we encourage everyone to contribute to these extreme records by contacting us to initiate the discussion