Huon and Arve areas: Important Bushfire information:
This area was impacted by the Riveaux Road Bushfire in January / February 2019. Many of the trees listed here have succumbed to the fire. The potential hazards from falling branches and collapsing trees are very real and conditions will remain dangerous for some time - so please contact Sustainable Timber Tasmania if you are intending on visiting this area.
Above: the burnt out base of Bigfoot - this tree is dead and will likely collapse in the near future.
Above: Surrounded by bushfire scarred forest, a small patch of old growth trees miraculously escaped the flames - in this area we discovered Walled Bennetts - 18m girth and 70m tall - deep in the rainforest.
The Phoenix, a few hundred meters off Bennetts rd survived the flames - it is 17.3m girth and 71m tall
'Earl Grey Bennetts' survived the flames. It is 18.3m girth and 72m to its broken top. note the re-sprouting tree ferns giving life to the blackened scene. Ferns are often the first plants to bounce back from bushfire.
Please note - all photos and text below pre-date the bushfire.
Please read the attached list of dead and damaged trees.
| table_of_burnt_trees_1.pdf |
'Bigfoot' is over 20m in girth and 82m to the top of its broken and decayed top. Its trunk does not drop below 2m in diameter until after 40m in height. It remained undiscovered until 2003 despite being only 100m from the busiest foresty road in Tasmania.
'Papa Zig' is 87m tall and 17m in girth. It is a stunning tree with a perfectly straight trunk that is free of branches for about 65m on the southern side (see below) As the top of this tree is broken it is estimated that it was at least in the mid 90m range in its prime
'Centurion' was discovered by a Forestry Tasmania LiDAR flight in 2008, uncovering a small patch of very old forest in an area that had quite a lot of fire and logging disturbance. Initially measured in 2008 at 99.6m, it was remeasured in 2014 and it had grown over 20cm to be 99.82m tall. However, a further tape drop in 2016 gave a figure of 99.67m, indicating that growth may have been negligible in the past 10 years. Nevertheless, it is easily Australia's tallest known tree. Interestingly, it's trunk is broken at over 80m up and the current crown has regrown from the break - this indicates that the tree may have been considerably taller in the past.
Looking down the trunk of 'Centurion'.
The Arve Big Tree
If you only have the chance to see one tree in Tasmania, the 'Arve Big Tree' is probably the easiest of all the giant trees to visit. It is only 10km from the Town of Geeveston and the road is sealed all the way. The raised wooden platform that once took you close to the tree has been removed and has been replaced with a much sturdier steel structure (September 2018). The tree itself is stunning - while its lower stocking of brown bark, stripping away to reveal the cream and light green smooth bark above, is similar to most other Eucalyptus regnans trees - most people are taken aback by the sheer scale of this monster. The tree is 87m tall to its broken top and the massive trunk holds 360 cubic meters of wood. It is also a survivor: The 1967 fires swept through this area killing many similarly aged giant trees. Loggers in the pre-industrial days before the 1950s also seemed to have ignored it - perhaps it was just too large to contemplate trying to cart it back to civilization? Luckily, road surveyors for the Forests Commission were impressed enough when they came across it in the 1980's that subsequently, the tree and the surrounding area were reserved.
Above two images: 'The Shield Maiden' 87m tall 17m girth - off Arve Loop road
'Master Bennetts' was found in 2007 during a survey of the old growth off Bennetts road. It is 18m girth and 81m tall. It had recently been impacted by a spot fire from an escaped regeneration burn. The fires had only burnt around the big old eucalypts and not escaped into the rainforest nearby.
Swirly Burly Megs is almost 19m in girth. It was only discovered in January 2013 off Barnback Road, west of Judbury. The presence of thin, pole stage regrowth Eucalyptus regnans around the tree, indicate that there was an fire in the area about 25-30 years ago. The photo of its huge bole below gives a fair indication of where the tree got part of its name!
