The Railway Giant is a Mountain Grey Gum, situated between the railway line and Francis Ave in Drouin, at the ‘elbow’, where Francis Ave swings from north-south to east-west. This leviathan reaches about 30m in height, has a canopy spread of at least 20m and a girth of 7.75m at chest height!
Apart from the size of the tree, the most useful evidence of the age of the Railway Giant is the number and size of the hollows contained within its trunk and branches. It is generally accepted that most eucalypts begin to form hollows after about 100 years. There is a whole field of study that involves estimating the age of a tree by the hollows it contains.
Because there are hundreds of species of native fauna that require tree hollows for their survival, the Railway Giant is extremely valuable as a habitat tree. Possums, gliders, bats, lizards, frogs, beetles and grubs and of course numerous bird species would all find these hollows valuable for shelter, resting or breeding.
The Railway Giant is a much-revered Drouin landmark. In 2018, artist in residence Jo Camaniti, painted the Railway Giant.
The Baw Baw Significant Tree Register (LINK), states that a tree is determined suitable for the register because of any one of 12 criteria. The Railway Giant satisfied five criteria – location/landscape context, being particularly old, outstanding size, outstanding form, a remnant tree and high habitat value.
Precious!