The Camp Tree
Meet the Immortal River Red Gum – a heritage-listed tree on the Mallee Dam Road, adjoining Mount Elgin Swamp.
It’s one of the thickest, tallest, and oldest River Red Gums (Eucalyptus camaldulensis) in Victoria and can be found 13 km south of Nhill.
The National Trust estimates the tree is about 400 years old and has been listed as a significant tree because it is particularly old and because of its outstanding size.
It has a girth of 11 metres, a spread of about 25 metres and is 42 metres high.
Fortunately, “Big Red” is in good condition and it’s still a relative baby as these trees can live for up to a thousand years.
Eucalyptus Camaldulensis also has the ominous name of “Widow Maker” as it has a habit of dropping large boughs without warning. Despite this, it is one of the best-known and admired trees in the Australian landscape and many smaller examples can be found in the Nhill swamp.
The huge gum was once known as the “Camp Tree” and was described by Nhill Free Press editor Fred Mckenzie as a monarch of the primeval forest, which once clothed the region east of the Lawloit hills.
Photos: National Trust
It was a campsite for the gold escort route troopers and in 1936 Mckenzie wrote:
The old historic eucalypt has seen sights that Australia may never witness again—the great stampede of South Australians travelling overland, down the escort road, to the magnet goldfields of Victoria.
Down past the old, camp tree rode Daniel Morgan (“Bill, the Spaniard”) leading his stolen horses from Cove and Lockhart and passing by were the Chinese, 100 strong, who had been dumped at Cushion Bay, S.A., to evade the poll tax.
Daughters of the great pastoral pioneers of the Wimmera picnicked under the tree and not long ago a party of men and maids from Dow Well was photographed under the tree.
In December a party of bandsmen from Nhill held a picnic in the shade of this historic eucalypt.
What a teeming population of bird, animal, and insect life the tree supports. Those who are observant will detect brown scratches on the undamaged bark of the trunk made by the ‘possums that live in the hollow above when they come down at night to feed.
Many generations of gorgeously plumed parrots jewelled the limbs, while cranes, crows, magpies, owls, eagles, honeyeaters, tree creepers, and many other species of beautiful Australian birds have made it their home.
Millions of bees, butterflies, beetles, and ants have gathered the generous outpourings of honey which takes place when the red gum is in flower.
Flights of screeching white cockatoos have for ages perched on its branches, and flocks of slow-flying, harsh-voiced black cockatoos, in their periodical. flights to the Grampians are welcome visitors to the tree.
Fire has. nearly destroyed the giant trunk—it has demolished one of the northern limbs; storms have torn off other limbs; it has stood the heat of summer down through the centuries, but the old camp tree on the hill is in fair condition, notwithstanding its great age, and still provides the setting for a happy picnic party.
This article appeared in the Nhill Free Press & Kaniva Times, 20 September 2023.
