I can't get my head around this.

Maybe Christopher de Mendonca or one of his buddies traded some tools for other stuff when he came for a visit to Botany Bay in 1522 ;)

cheers, Peter

Hi Dave,

Perhaps the box tree was cut whilst the gum already was alive for a few decades. That could put the date forward quite a few decades....

Cheers
Alan

I can't quite picture how the red gum has grown around the box tree.
How much of the box tree is there?

Are there branches, or just a piece of the box tree? How big is the box tree? Is it protruding from the redgum stump? What part was cut? How do you know it was a metal axe that was used?

Is the box tree on its side? How thick is the trunk?

Hi

Dont assume the second tree started growing the day after the first was cut down.

Reason why someone would chop one particular tree down? Impossible to figure out..but it appears they did chop it down and the other grew around it.

Problem solved :)

Well thats my guess.

Cheers
Greg

"Eucalyptus camaldulensis (River Red Gum) has probably one of the fastest growth rates for a tree and with a good water supply can attain a height of 12-15 m in a few years (Cunningham et al., 1981)."

It was stated that the "inner tree has been dated at 200 years" (Royce) and if the Red Gum has a fast growth rate as above then it may not have been many years ago that it germinated. The "inner tree" may have been cut down not long before that Red Gum germination which would place the Gum felling maybe fairly recently.

Yeah I also sew the exhibit about 5 or six years ago when travelling through the are.

I remember having a chuckle at how many people still think that the British were the first europeans in Australia!

There were many intentional as well as unintentional landings on the great southern land by the Dutch & Portugese & by who knows else!

Why wouldn't one of these have traded with the locals, there was a strong tradeing philosophy with the Aboriginals of the past, & the "metel" axe head could have been traded across the country from the west coast.

Just my 2 cents worth.

Hi Dave,

Interesting, but a lot seems to hang on the dating of one or other of the trees. Who did the dating and how experienced were they? Its pretty difficult to date eucalypts using tree rings because they dont have the annual growth pattern of northern hemisphere trees.

A 1m diameter river red gum could quite possibly be less than 200 years old. Also they have a tendency for trunks and branches that are close to each other to fuse together.Image Could Not Be Found The tree in the photo had a number of branches joining together. In central Vic I have seen a tree (said to be one of quite a number) where aboriginals plaited the branches together and they subsequently fused to form a coarse lattice. Maybe the red gum surrounding the cut down box started life as more than one tree (or a coppice) and multiple trunks later fused together?

I recall someone from down near Wentworth whose family had lived in the area for a few generations telling me how some of the early weird land tenure laws had the effect of encouraging the squatters/graziers to clear their land of every tree, including along the riverbanks. This could explain why a box tree was cut down. It also suggests that at least in some places all the r. r. gums etc that we now see are regrowth.

Regrowth from early clearing tended to be very thick, and River red gums seedlings can form dense carpets. Image Could Not Be Found. This photo was taken last year on the Darling River.

Finally a skilled axeman with a good axe could easily make a clean cut several cm deep into green timber. With precision cutting, even if a few blows are involved the cut surface will look smooth. I know this from seeing how my axeman son cuts logs.

Putting all that together, my guess is that the box tree was cut down by early settlers. Subsequent regrowth of river red gums has then enclosed the stump.

Cheers,

Val

a very interesting book on pre british european influence is 'And their ghosts may be heard' by rupert gerritsen. Lots of interesting info and questions peter