The Big Tree

This wonderful old River Red Gum, on the edge of Guildford township, is a rare survivor of the old forests and the largest of its kind on the Diggings.

Before the arrival of the squatters and gold miners, mighty River Red Gums bent their boughs over the creeks and grassy flats of the floodplains.

Behind them, towering box and ironbark eucalypts spread their canopy over an often grassy understory. The Big Tree gives us a clue to the forests as they were. In particular, look for the many hollows in its gnarled and broken branches. You are likely to see parrots, or other birds, making use of these hollows as homes. Most of the trees in Central Victoria now are too young to contain sizeable living areas for birds, bats, tuans and other animals.