Drouin’s Oaks #1

In early times, much of western Europe was covered with dense oak forests.

Many old oak trees took on characteristics that were often the origins of myths and folklore and many splendid specimens were given anthropomorphic names in recognition of famous people or events.

Little wonder that early European arrivals to West Gippsland were keen to continue their long-held connections to this iconic tree species. In the streets and parks of Drouin to this day we reap the benefits of plantings of some magnificent oaks by early settlers to the district.

Oak Street in Drouin is named in honour of the old oak trees along the south west side of Oak Street Kindergarten. The trees are thought to have been planted early in the 1900s to provide shelter for the livestock in the sale yards which were located in this triangle of land. In the 1936 aerial photographs of Drouin these oaks look like they could have been about 20+ years old. These saleyards were the central yards for farmers around the district and livestock were walked into town by farmers from places like Drouin West. The close proximity to the train station meant that livestock could be freighted easily by rail.

Oak Street Kinder was established in 1964.  In Keith Pretty’s book, Buln Buln to Baw Baw, he says: “This Kindergarten has an almost unique ‘oldworld’ setting with its beautiful old oak trees which provide valuable learning experiences for the children. They learn from the acorns, the birds and the animals (possums) which are there because of the trees”. 

Many children, now adults, who attended the Kindergarten remember taking home pockets full of acorns! At least one family even has an oak tree grown from one of these acorns and it is most likely that the oak tree on the southeast side of the railway bridge could also be an offspring!

Today there are four remaining English oaks, Quercus robur, three in the Kindergarten grounds and one just to the west of the kinder boundary. They are 18-20m high with 20m wide canopies, providing wonderful shade cover for preschool children, the birds and the cars parked in the street in summer, and more than ample mulch for the kinder and JC Wells park in autumn. They are truly splendid specimens.

Perhaps in the future, some of Drouin’s magnificent oaks will be ‘honoured’ in the same way many of the European ancient trees are today.

(Thanks to Judy for this post)

PS: Whilst the Pedunculate Oak is not considered highly as a habitat tree, some Little Ravens, (I think), and some Pied Currawongs were busy feeding on lichen on the branches in the canopy.

‘Gum Trees’ - Did You Know?

All gum trees are eucalypts but not all eucalypts are gum trees.

The gum tree is one of Australia’s most recognised icons.

Gum trees are very adaptable to a range of climates and conditions – snow, drought, floods, fires, poor soil, etc.

There are over 850 species of eucalypts and they evolved about 70 million years ago.

‘Eucalyptus’ is Greek for ‘well covered’, referring to the cap of the bud.

The typical closed-capped buds of an eucalypt

Eucalypts are grown in over 100 countries worldwide – USA, Spain, Italy, Israel, India, China, etc.

The River Red Gum is thought to be the most widely distributed species – anywhere there is an old creek bed and some occasional flooding.

Many large eucalypts are ‘high-rise’ habitats – from root bacteria in the ‘basement’, reptiles and invertebrates under the bark of the ‘middle floors’, up to the birds and mammals in the hollows and the canopy of the ‘roof gardens’.

One of the giant Mountain Grey Gums in Hearn Park

Eucalyptus oil is contained within glands in the leaves. (Australia imports more than 80% of its eucalyptus oil from countries like China and Brazil!)

Blue coloured mountain ranges are due to eucalyptus oil vapour in the atmosphere.

An old 4 tank eucalyptus still at Wyalong, NSW - (courtesy of the Wattle Brand Eucalyptus Oil Co.)

The Mountain Ash, Eucalyptus regnans, is the world’s tallest flowering plant yet its seed is barely 2mm long.

The world’s tallest tree in 1884 was a Mountain Ash at Thorpdale – the Cornthwaite brothers proved the fact by cutting it down and measuring it, (114.3m)!

Young regrowth Mountain Ash in Mt Worth State Park

Eucalypt plantations are being used around the world to sequester carbon.

Many eucalypts over 100 years old form numerous hollows that are readily used by a variety of birds, mammals and reptiles for roosting and nesting.

Victoria has about 30 endemic eucalypts, (found naturally occurring nowhere else). Even Drouin and district has an endemic eucalypt, the Strzelecki Gum.

Eucalyptus Strzeleckii, endemic to West Gippsland area - McNeilly Wetlands

It is thought that gum leaves hang down to allow as much sun as possible to reach the ground below and to allow rain droplets to fall directly to the root zone.

In drought conditions some eucalypts can turn their leaves edge on to the sun light to minimize evaporation.

A gum leaf can be made into a useful ‘band-aid’ in an emergency.

The evocative nature of eucalypts has been described by singers, songwriters, artists, photographers and poets ever since settlement. Soldiers returning home by ship from the two world wars were said to be able to smell eucalyptus before land was sighted.

The gum tree is Australian as Aussie as can be
And there's no more Australian than the eucalyptus tree
They have been in Australia perhaps since life began
Thousands and thousands of years before coming of man.

        Francis Duggan – a very prolific poet from Victoria (rhymeonly blog –worth a look)

PS: The dulcet tones of Judy and Peter can be heard here, when they were interviewed a while back by Lyn Wells of 3BBR FM - includes a brief musical interlude.

And, you can listen directly online to 3BBR FM our wonderful local radio station via SHOUTcast.

The Value of Dead Trees

To some, woodland and parkland cleared of dead trees, logs and stumps etc, might be called aesthetically attractive, to others such a scenario is akin to a desert!

In 2001, the Australian and New Zealand Environment and Conservation Council prepared a report in which it stated that … ‘ongoing removal of dead trees and woody debris on the ground caused by human activity has been recognised as a factor contributing to loss of biological diversity’.

 

Dead trees contain hollows and crevices for a myriad of wildlife.

 As much as 40% of Australian woodland wildlife is dependent on dead wood material. Dead trees and logs play an essential role in woodland, parkland, forest and wetland ecosystems.

 

Logs on the ground are an essential part of woodland biodiversity.

Logs and dead trees have lots of hollows, cracks and crevices of various sizes where animals may live, breed or shelter. In Victoria more than 60 species of mammals and birds are directly reliant on hollows – the list is expanded somewhat when the reptiles and invertebrates are included.  The loss of hollow bearing trees from Victorian native forests is listed as a potentially threatening process under the Flora and Fauna Guarantee Act.

 

Buff-rumped Thornbills seem to particularly 

inhabit woodland containing logs and stumps.

Many of our birds, mammals 

and reptiles need hollows in dead trees.

Hollows, cracks and crevices aside, dead trees and logs play a vital role in maintaining a healthy ecosystem by returning nutrients to the soil, insulation for the micro-organisms in the soil, providing a barrier to erosion by wind and rain, etc. Many mosses, lichens and fungi would not survive without dead woody material.

 

Fungi, mosses and lichens play their 

role in returning nutrients to the ecosystem.

Every tree dies eventually but its ecological value lasts long after the last leaf has fallen!

Further reading:-

Dead Wood and Wildlife – Dept of Conservation and Land Management WA.

Removal of dead wood and trees a key threatening process – NSW Office of Environment and Heritage.

The value of dead wood to wildlife and agriculture – DNRE Vic.

The Value of Habitat Trees – Land forWildlife Q.