LAST week the National Trust of Victoria crowned South Gippsland’s “Mount Fatigue Giant,” located in the Strzelecki Ranges, as Victorian Tree of the Year.
The mountain ash giant is an impressive 46 metres tall with a trunk girth of 18.85 metres. I was reminded of a visit to the “site of the World’s Tallest Tree,” near Thorpdale which the plaque claimed was felled in 1884 and was measured at a towering 114 metres tall.
Whether this giant is, or was, the world’s tallest tree seems in dispute with a currrent Coast Red in North America coming in at 116 metres, and a different claim of 132 metres for another tree mentioned.
Whichever is the case, it appears several eucalypts figure in the top 10 living trees around the 90 metre mark.
So I’m wondering with our conditions in South Gippsland being conducive to growing the large eucalypts can anyone come up with the tallest specimen in South Gippsland, Australia or even the world.
Steve Finlay, Leongatha
