Australia's Biggest, Tallest and Oldest Trees

There are many hobbies that one can choose. Stamp collecting, gardening, climbing tall trees. REALLY tall trees. Former ISAAC Australian Tree Climbing Champion and international representative, Tom Greenwood, does exactly that. He travels around south-eastern Australia, with assistance from Brett Mifsud, in search of Australia's tallest trees. When he finds them, he measures them. Not all that unusual, you say. Not until you realise he does it with a tape measure, from the top of the tree! Tom has measured many tall trees and has graciously agreed to publish the tallest of the tall and the biggest of the big on our website. Thanks Tom. The tallest reliably documented tree ever measured was the Thorpdale Tree, a Mountain Ash (Eucalyptus regnans) growing at Thorpdale in Victoria, Australia. The tree was measured at 112.8m (370 feet) standing and 114.3m (375 feet) on the ground after it was felled in 1884. As you can see below, this is just a little taller than the living record holder; however, the Coast Redwoods are still growing and it is likely that some will eventually surpass this height. To see some of Australia's giant trees, have a look here http://www.nre.vic.gov.au/virtualexhibition/trees. The five tallest known trees in Australia are all in the Styx Valley, Tasmania. For the desperately patriotic Aussie, there is still hope. Several strong but unverified reports of Mountain Ash were recorded at over 122m (400 feet) during the nineteenth century. As most were felled at the time, it is almost certain that no such tall trees currently exist. We can hope, however, that if we preserve enough of our forested areas that one day these tallest of the tall will once more grace our planet.

The Mount Tree when first discovered in 1962 and today

Australia's Tallest and Biggest trees - World's Tallest, Biggest and Oldest trees

Australia's Tallest Living Trees

Tom measures the trees from the topmost leaf to the average point where the base of the tree intersects the ground. As of July 2004, these are the ten tallest living trees recorded in Australia.

Tree name	Species	Common Name	Height	Girth	Location
Mount Tree/Trident Tree	Eucalyptus regnans	Mountain Ash	96.5m	12m	Tasmania
	Eucalyptus regnans	Mountain Ash	94.3m		Tasmania
Damocles	Eucalyptus regnans	Mountain Ash	92.9m	9m	Tasmania
	Eucalyptus regnans	Mountain Ash	92.3m	7m	Tasmania
	Eucalyptus regnans	Mountain Ash	92.0m		Tasmania
Plumpton Tree	Eucalyptus regnans	Mountain Ash	91.6m	12m	Tasmania
Big Ash 1	Eucalyptus regnans	Mountain Ash	91.6m		Victoria
	Eucalyptus regnans	Mountain Ash	91.5m	10.9m	Tasmania
	Eucalyptus regnans	Mountain Ash	91.4		Tasmania
	Eucalyptus regnans	Mountain Ash	91.4		Tasmania

Tasmania's tallest and biggest trees can be found here. Note that the tenth tallest living Tasmanian tree is named after our intrepid tree measurers!

Species	Common Name	Height	Girth	Location
Eucalyptus viminalis	Manna Gum	89.0m		Tasmania
Eucalyptus delagatensis subsp. tasmaniensis	Alpine Ash	88.7m		Tasmania
Eucalyptus nitens	Shining Gum	84.4m		Tasmania
Eucalyptus diversicolor	Karri	80.5m		WA
Eucalyptus globulus	Blue Gum	80.0m		Tasmania

Australia's Biggest Living Trees

Being tall is one thing, but being big is about volume. The biggest trees are not necessarily the tallest, but the ones with the largest volume. Typically these trees are still very tall, but have a larger average diameter than the very tallest.

Tree name	Species	Common Name	Height	Girth	Volume (m3)	Location
El Grande	Eucalyptus regnans	Mountain Ash	80m	18.75m	380-410	Tasmania
Geeveston Giant	Eucalyptus regnans	Mountain Ash	87m	17.2m	376-400	Tasmania
Gothmog	Eucalyptus obliqua	Messmate Stringybark	55m	17.3m	329	Tasmania
My Tree	Eucalyptus regnans	Mountain Ash	87m	17.4	307	Tasmania
Two Towers	Eucalyptus regnans	Mountain Ash	74m	20.55m	300+	Tasmania
Chapel Tree	Eucalyptus regnans	Mountain Ash	81m	18.2m	280+	Tasmania
Blue Tier Giant	Eucalyptus regnans	Mountain Ash	~60m	19.4m	280+	Tasmania
Old Regret	Eucalyptus regnans	Mountain Ash	82m	16.2m	280+	Tasmania
Leaning Tower of Bluespur	Eucalyptus regnans	Mountain Ash	80m	16.2m	280+	Tasmania
Gandalf's Staff	Eucalyptus regnans	Mountain Ash	82+m	14.4m	280+	Tasmania
007	Eucalyptus regnans	Mountain Ash	80.2m	18.4m	270+	Tasmania
Elder Bennetts	Eucalyptus regnans	Mountain Ash	78m	15.5m	270+	Tasmania

The World's Tallest, Biggest and Oldest Trees

Tallest
The tallest living trees are Coast Redwoods (Sequoia sempervirens) growing in California, USA. These trees regularly exceed 100m and the tallest is the Stratosphere Giant, currently 112.6m (369 feet, 4.8in) (http://www.guinnessworldrecords.com).

NEW - Stratosphere giant surpassed by Hyperion, a Coast Redwood (Sequoia sempervirens) 379.1 feet (115.5 metres) (Planet Ark)

Biggest
The most massive trees are the Sierra Redwoods or Big Trees (Sequoiadendron giganteum), also growing in California. The largest, the General Sherman, is estimated at 2,000 tons (http://www.guinnessworldrecords.com).

Oldest
The USA also boasts the oldest living trees currently verified, Bristlecone Pine (Pinus longaeva). The largest recorded ring count for a Bristlecone Pine is 4,867 (http://www.guinnessworldrecords.com).

Australia can claim a little bit of glory in the age stakes in having the oldest genetically identical stand of trees. While no individual in this stand of Huon Pine (Lagarostrobos franklinii) in Tasmania is especially old by world standards, clones of the original tree have stood on the site for at least 10,500 years (http://www.dpiwe.tas.gov.au/inter.nsf/WebPages/BHAN-5494LA?open).

Huon Pines can be 2,000 years old and are Australia's oldest living trees.

Australia may be set to claim the world's oldest tree record, as two specimens of the world's rarest eucalypt, the Mongarlowe Mallee (Eucalyptus recurva), which grow 40 metres apart, may be part of the same original tree. If so, they are estimated to be 13,000 years old! If not, the individuals themselves may be 3,000 years old, making them Australia's oldest trees (http://www.nationalparks.nsw.gov.au/npws.nsf/Content/Eucalyptus+recurva+a+mallee+draft+recovery+plan).

We also may have the oldest living plant, King's Holly (Lomatia tasmanica), with a clonal colony possibly up to 43,000 years old (http://www.parks.tas.gov.au/veg/lomatia/lomatia.html).