GIANT TREES OF THE DANDENONGS


The Dandenong Ranges are on the outskirts of Melbourne. They were a popular destination for daytrippers from the city, which were fascinated by these trees. A large fallen trunk in the Upper Ferntree Gully National park was used as a house by a naturalist who was the first to film Lyrebirds in the area.Unfortunately fascination didn't lead to protection. The ones that weren't destroyed by bushfires in the late 30's were removed by settlers later on or fell victim to "progress".

mueller(furmstons)treesmall
This magnificent example was known as Furmstons (incorrectly as the Mueller) tree which was located on the Monda track near Healesville. When discovered in the late 19th century it was thought to be well over 100m in height but unfortunately was never properly measured in its glory. While there was a lot of overestimating of heights in the olden days, the great size of the trunk, symmetry & strightness of the section we can see here perhaps lend some credence to these ealry estimates. Later on it became a broken stag (had its top broken off) and the remnants were measured to be 60m in height before the trunk finally collapsed in 1998. This area is currently a protected catchment so has restricted access today. Click on the photo for a larger version.
Sherbrooke tree
 This giant trunk (note people standing at base) was photographed down the hill in Sherbrooke when Mountain Ash stands once coverered Upper & Lower Ferntree Gully as well as higher up in the hills. Its girth was measured at 60 feet (18.29m). This translates to an approximate diameter of  5.8m. Length is unknown.  Many of these giant tree photos became popular postcards as this one did & became part of the Rose series.
neerim tree


Another big tree located at Neerim was measured at 12.19m circumference (3.88m diameter).

Note the clearing in the foreground required to get the photo

Photo taken by Nicholas Claire in the 19th century.
ADA TREE                   ADA TREE




Happily the mighty ADA tree still lives, but it is on the way out and at the end of its reign. Estimated to be about 400 years old it is now a broken stag and only 78m tall. But its circumferenceis 15.7m (approx 5m diameter) at 1.5m height. Department of Natural Resources and Environment officers estimate the tree was about 120m tall when in its prime based on the diameter of the broken off section at its top. Its volume is estimated to be 830 cum.

Getting to this tree you pass many stumps and fallen rotten logs of similar or even larger diameters. These were cut down by early loggers only to find the wood mainly useless. This wood quality "testing" unfortunately happened to many large trees.