Why Australia's Tall Trees Are A Mystery

[@peterbernhardt5169]

Comments here from Australians stating they never heard of these trees tells all of us that botanical education in Australian K-12 has declined severely since I arrived in Melbourne in '77. At that time I watched school children identify eucalypts, banksias, wattles etc, when asked. What this video leaves out is that E. regnans (and some huge conifers) persist in Victoria and Tasmania because they are within a natural refugium with climate and water levels comparable to the temperate rainforests of late Gondwana, a biome described in the first volume of "The Flora of Australia" published in the 20th century. Bryan Barlow's essay is still worth reading.

[@TheRealMycanthrope]

It has declined, and it's appalling 😢

[@peterbernhardt5169]

@@TheRealMycanthrope And to think, when I arrived in Australia in '77 Joseph Banks and his plants were on the $5 bill.

[@brayden1234ish]

To be fair, these wood locations are kept hidden and away from the public so obvisouly its not broadcasted information

[@cheeks7050]

Nowadays it's about children defining their gender more than natural science.

[@lus-an-tsalainn]

It's basically not taught outside of hsc biology so unless you live near one people are unlikely to come across one. Out country you'll find people who know them because they pass information along, city folk though are really insular and weirdly caustic about learning anything not directly related to their lives like learning some general knowledge is some sort of burden.

[@philnorman9425]

I love the reported exchange between Australia and the USA regarding the worlds tallest tree, I think it happened in the 1920's. Aust. We cut down a tree and measured it, it's the tallest tree ever. USA in reply. Congratulations on having the worlds longest log, we still have the tallest living tree, as measured by a surveyor.

[@malcolmrickarby2313]

The USA may have even taller trees very soon as they have planted many of the Victorian mountain ash and Tasmanian blue gums in ideal habitat but without the Australian birds and animals that would limit their growth.😊

[@theoblincko18]

Worlds longest log LOL

[@Invictus357]

I live in the foothills of the Otway Ranges, of southern Victoria, and I’m planting at least 20-30+ Mountain Ash trees as well as companion trees on my property for future generations. I know I will never see them grow to maturity, but the knowledge I have that others will hopefully enjoy them in 100, to 200 years time and beyond, is worth it.

[@Chris.Davies]

So, why not start planting them again, with the idea that in 600 or 700 years from now, you've recovered the landscape to its greatness again. Here in Christchurch, we've just planted 60,000 Kahikatea trees as part of a bird corridor bringing native birds into the city - and it's already working. :) These trees will reach up to 65-metres tall and take 600 years to fully mature, and in that time, they will transform large portions of our city. That's forward thinking!

[@Antmann71]

To help you picture how big these trees were.. The height of the Sydney Harbour bridge is 134metres from the arch to the water. I'll be thinking about the magnificent mountain ash next time i drive over it...

[@reubenab6005]

It feels even crazier to think that the tree mentioned at 1:08 could’ve been as big as the hometree in Avatar.

[@Ellisian]

I'm not sure how this ended up in my recommended, but it was really well done! Very thoughtful conclusion & the soundscape playing in the background transported me immediately to memories of rainy walks through the otways. Hope you got a good mark for this, and thanks for sharing it online!

[@fruitlessadventures]

Thanks so much for the support

[@Gregemio]

Imagine cutting down the worlds tallest tree to build a dump like Melbourne. Such a shame

[@cjaksson]

🤣

[@fruitlessadventures]

poor Melbourne

[@TheRealMycanthrope]

Gottem

[@phoenixx5092]

Says the guy living in the country that sent the people who built it as convicts, which has a capital city, considered one of the most trashy in the entire northern hemisphere.. Which is almost entirely built on the ruins of much more interesting things built by the people your own forefathers displaced. Pot Calling Kettle black much? Besides most of the wood from said cutting down was exported to build YOUR city in the 19th century :P go yell at your grandad.

[@malcolmrickarby2313]

I can remember the school magazine telling the story of the worlds tallest tree at my Melbourne primary school. They cut it down to make fence palings.😢

[@peterschmidt1453]

Karri trees (Eucalyptus Diversicolour) were 100m trees, some specimens still over 80m remain, but what's interesting is the root system has been found in caves 50m under the forests, so Karris are potentially 150m long life forms if the tallest specimens are left to grow.

[@fruitlessadventures]

very interesting

[@doscwolny2221]

Figs have huge root depths

[@mrdeanvincent]

​@@doscwolny2221 Figs have long roots but they don't tend to go deep. They tend to be shallow and spread widely.

[@doscwolny2221]

@@mrdeanvincent there are numerous accounts of fig roots 100mtrs down and into cave roofs

[@mrdeanvincent]

@@doscwolny2221 Interesting, I didn't know that. They do _tend_ to grow shallow but wide. Thanks for the info.

[@waewaepouwhare320]

The world needs more young people like you sir!!!

[@fruitlessadventures]

Thank you dearly :)

[@tealkerberus748]

The tragedy of those people commemorating how tall these trees were *while cutting them down.* If they'd left the giants and harvested only the smaller trees, the premium genetic stock of the giants would have been what regrew underneath them. The early settlers in the river red gum regions described it as a tall, straight, magnificent tree. These days the only river red gums are twisted knotty messes, because all the good specimens were taken out for timber and only the uneconomic trees were left for paddock shade purposes. Now we want to grow river red gums for timber, the twisted knotty ones are the only option for genetics, and they refuse to grow true. Even if our predecessors didn't value keeping the trees simply because they were awe-inspiring beings, keeping them as genetic stock would have given future Australians a valuable resource.

[@judgedread-q4t]

Well, back then, if you didn't chop it down then someone else would, loggers were very ruthless and tough people - the same sort of people running corporations today that clear-fell whole forests because they're given free reign to by governments.

[@KenshinPhoenix]

Humanity has never been very bright or forward looking.

[@diannehogan7605]

I doubt it was genetics. I think it's more likely they grew straighter back then because there was more competition for sunlight.

[@cheeks7050]

They are logging the shit out of Tasmania still.

[@liquidbrickle]

And Queensland. Our government should feel shameful but they don’t. Breaks my fucking heart.

[@Welcometothewild]

Logging of old growth euca still occurs in Australia. Our remaining old growth are at risk allover the word, we must protect them

[@fruitlessadventures]

@@Welcometothewild couldn’t agree more

[@MaitreMark]

watch the video 'No Forests on the Flat Earth' it tells a crazy history of trees before the Romans cut them all down....

[@topgunexcel]

So what's old growth? There is only one species of Eucalyptus that lives over 500yrs 😂

[@Welcometothewild]

@@topgunexcel I’m talking about ecosystems that have been free from large destruction events such as logging. Humans have existed in the ecosystems harmoniously for thousands and thousands of years but they understood the value of intact ecosystems. This is true for areas around the world. In Louisiana we had old growth cypress that lived for 4000+ years. Redwoods in Cali for 2000, all the old giant you rarely see or don’t see idk who you are. Our world was full of these giants and now what are we left with. Degraded ecosystems that don’t provide as much food and medicine to the people and animals that inhabited them

[@MaitreMark]

@@topgunexcel they can live for 5000 years.

[@jeffwhite2511]

May the Forest be with You - always and everywhere

[@BobLouden-r9q]

It's my home. I just don't get out in it much at the moment. If it rains you can get stuck very easily. It's all clay just under the surface. But hell it's beautiful to see the wild horses, Emus, Kangaroos, koalas, and never ending birds.

[@karlferguson]

It pains me that Australia has removed so many forests for farmland. We produce quality food amongst the ghosts of unimaginable forests.

[@jayceorourke5672]

The forests here must have been immense. Like something out of a fairy tale.

[@fruitlessadventures]

it is very sad

[@JadedHunter]

Don't be sad, buy some land and grow tree's. Proactive solutions for a better tomorrow

[@GeoffBrown-rg7yq]

We bought acreage in Port Stephens 30 years ago and haven't stopped planting since. The Council have changed our statise from Rural to Rural 1A , to large residential , to residential. What chance have you got ?? Been trying to do my bit.... This country is doomed.....

[@raclark2730]

@@JadedHunter 100%. As the saying goes the best time to plant a tree is 20 years ago, the second best is today. In the case of forest giants its 200 + years. But we can lay the foundation for 200 years in the future right now.

[@seonaelizabethcoster8465]

The Mountain Ash!! My favourite tree!! They are such beautiful trees, and make up such a huge part of my childhood visiting Gippsland to visit family.

[@drfill9210]

@@seonaelizabethcoster8465 nice tree... but Huon pine...

[@outofbounds2022]

Hey mate, I just found this video and your channel. Love your work mate. Very well researched and presented.

[@fruitlessadventures]

Thanks and welcome

[@Zedigan]

Thanks for bringing more attention to the gorgeous trees. More attention, more protection.

[@fruitlessadventures]

My pleasure

[@Liam_219]

Stuff like this hits real hard when you look at the countryside of Victoria today. Vast emptiness, you can see endlessly in the distance, yet 200 years ago the whole place was covered in trees hundreds of metres tall. In fact some smaller remnant trees survive in this farmland, and in my opinion it’s kinda depressing, these lone trees standing 40 to 50 metres tall, all alone in what was once a lush forest

[@fruitlessadventures]

agreed

[@ThePaulv12]

The people that cut them down even knew they were doing the wrong thing. I read an excerpt from an early settler and he was disgusted in himself when he realized what theyd all just done. He longed for it to be the way it was.

[@noneed4sleep64]

Most of Victoria was covered in box ironbark forest, which doesn’t grow nearly as tall, but is still beautiful in its own way

[@MerlinDerMagier]

So sad to see what humans have done to such magical forests…

[@brianlove8413]

As bad as the development of these areas may seem, and I am sure that things could have been done better, one should take note that if it wasn't developed, there would not have been anyone here to lodge complaints or have opinions about the development!

[@fruitlessadventures]

fair call

[@simbelmyne1277]

I did know this. The “tallest” tree in Thorpdale is on my cousins farm. My great grandparents were original settlers there a hundred and fifty years ago.

[@DidiPort]

One tends to find what one looks for. I knew of these Victorian and the Tasmanians forests and these trees and I’m not a greeny. Australia if I am correct only retains 1% of its “Old Growth” forest’s, there are a reasonable amount of forests that are regrowth forests. These as mentioned in the video will return to their stature if we simply leaves them alone.

[@YouTube_user3333]

There are similar stories in New South Wales. Many large trees were cut down without notation. The Grandis on the mid north coast is the biggest documented tree, but I know for a fact that larger trees have felled in the area.

[@alexanderwootten5160]

Another Eucalyptus Grandis was recently and accurately measured at 82m. There’s a great video of it also.

[@xutubeify]

BANGER OF A VIDEO WITH ONLY 882! your gonna be big mate!

[@fruitlessadventures]

cheers man :)

[@angrypossumsx1259]

I remember reading an article about a legendary E. regnans that had been felled in Victoria in the 1870s and estimated to have been very close to 400ft tall when standing.

[@malcolmrickarby2313]

That may be the tree at Thorpedale in this story, 396 feet!😊

[@lukerobson7703]

Geez huh, KZbin knows me that well and that I live surrounded by Mountain Ash trees just up the road from Tarra Bulga and put this random video right near the top of my feed. Nature and the future working together, what a weird time we’re living in.

[@fruitlessadventures]

awesome. Glad youtube is reaching the right people

[@tristanburns82]

I love tarra bulga first time i visited about 15years ago been back 3 more times from south australia awesome place

[@BradGryphonn]

I think I need to be an early subscriber if this is the early quality of your channel. Legend!

[@fruitlessadventures]

Cheers Man!

[@MaitreMark]

I subbed after watching this too ;)

[@phoenixx5092]

Not sure about the sign you looked at in Thorpedale, but further into the mountains nearby is a forest walk mostly known to locals, with a sign "site of the worlds tallest tree" sure they cut the tree down to measure it.. but they left the stump, and that is what is at the end of the walk. It's as big as a house. There is also a hotel near mount worth on the highway with a tree stump left there too, from a big tree. Although it is smaller than the one on the walking trail.

[@malcolmrickarby2313]

The sign at the Thorpedale tree was put up by the Mirboo North Rotary club .😊

[@JadedHunter]

Apart from the rhetoric towards the end, good video mate Those big gums are really awesome in real life

[@jeffwhite2511]

you mean the rhetoric about the truth?

[@azazelazel]

Truth hurts

[@alexanderpowell1528]

@@jeffwhite2511 Climate change hasn't hurt tree growth since European settlement. Tambora eruption of 1815 may have stunted tree growth for 2 years but that's it for climate change.

[@jeffwhite2511]

@@alexanderpowell1528 Apologies, I didn't realize I was commenting to a botanist, dendrologist and climate change expert. I'm sure it will all be fine so long as we deny reality - hence the Aussie motto "She'll be right mate", "Nothing to see here" but a whole bunch of selfish fools who think they can do whatever they want to the planet without consequence. Nature Bats Last and she ALWAYS bats a thousand.

[@jeffwhite2511]

@@alexanderpowell1528 and btw massive climate change induced infernos such as black Saturday do have a bit of an impact on tree growth, especially when most trees DIE

[@brettcoster4781]

I grew up in Loch, West Gippsland on a dairy farm. I don't know whether it was covered in timber when my grandfather settled there in the 1880s and there anyway was the Great Fire of 1890 or so that took out a lot of the local timber, Good video.

[@fruitlessadventures]

Thank you

[@sophiekenney5054]

This is so well done finn!

[@fruitlessadventures]

@@sophiekenney5054 ❤️❤️❤️

[@JustOneKnight]

And why didnt you mention the Ada tree?

[@boagski]

Awesome video! I feel like there’s so much hidden history in Australia. Everyone needs to come together to admire our beautiful nature or it will be sold while we bicker.

[@fruitlessadventures]

@@boagski agreed

[@lukekhutchinson]

Well said! I love Victoria's cool temperate rainforests and mountain ash! Otways, Dandenongs, Tara Bulga - beautiful!

[@aussiebodie]

Oh my this hurts my heart like grief

[@morosepapaya]

Glad this showed up in my feed. I've always loved trees; it's devastating to learn about these trees and that they're already gone from the world

[@fruitlessadventures]

@@morosepapaya thank you, I am glad you learn something 😊

[@diannehogan7605]

I have a Guiness Book of Records from the 1980s and it lists the tallest tree ever as being a Mountain Ash. It was found on Mt Buffalo in Northeast Victoria, not far from where I live.

[@taleandclawrock2606]

The Ada Tree in the Cathedral Ranges, Victoria is an awe inspiring Euc.regnans 86 ms tall, its astonishing to realise the svale of such giants, an unforgettable experience to see them. Terribly sad that so many were cut down.

[@Ducatirati]

BROTHER , I NEVER EXPECTED TO HEAR PALE BLUE EYES WATCHING A VID ABOUT TREES , WHAT A TRACK CHEERS TO YOU BRO

[@fruitlessadventures]

no worries man :)

[@frenchys_prospecting]

Intresting video, mate. Gonna watch a few more.

[@fruitlessadventures]

Awesome, thank you!

[@thattassiewargamer]

Thanks for a great video. Some of the tallest E. regnans are down my way in the Huon Valley but we lost quite a few of them to some intense natural bushfires several years ago. As much as it felt bad to lose those amazing trees to fire we need to remember that they rely on intense fire to remove competition for their offspring to grow.

[@fruitlessadventures]

very true

[@nicholasfallaw1366]

great work mate!

[@smitajky]

When I was young both the california redwoods and the regnans were claimed to go to "at least" 350 feet. Now the devastation of the 1939 bushfires was still everywhere. The black spur had only saplings. The otways had many giant dead grey trees towering way above all the rest. Fast forward another 65 years. The black spur had nice straight tall young trees but too dense to reach maturity. The otways had been cleared and replaced with pine plantations. A few years later while walking in the forest near Marysville I stumbled across the largest Regnans stump I had ever seen. It would have been a monster tree. But as it was amongst the devastation of Black Saturday it made me weep. 70 years of regeneration were lost. We will never see trees as large as that stump. Not for hundreds of years. But if we cannot find better management, not EVER. Somewhere the entire idea of forest succession has been broken.

[@fruitlessadventures]

@@smitajky this is so sad

[@MaitreMark]

Here in norther Tasmania I have gigantic stumps with the cuts up the side for the tree feller to stand on a plank. They were cut down by axe in 1820s. I have some of the small ones they left as boundary markers, they are huge!! 200+ years old, the limbs they drop are bigger than most trees....

[@Tassiedevil287]

Good video mate.

[@fruitlessadventures]

Cheers

[@Aemirys]

Loved this!

[@mrln247]

Would have loved to see some of the epic old growth. I've done a bunch of Forestry it's got a terrible reputation now, but responsible forestry isn't blanket clear fell for farmland, Deforestation and Greed has been the problem all along.

[@joshuamak9930]

I feel like all I've seen is new growth forest yet some part of me longs to be immersed in old growth. I read on the signs at Fairfield Station that there used to be plenty of "Big Stuff" (big tall ass trees) when the settlers came. Cabramatta means "land of the witchetty grub" which is a damn shame because I swear every asian who lives there now woulf be keen to try some but now theres just no environment left for them. Nobody catching eels in Parramatta either Actually tragic our effect on the natural environment of Australia in terms of what you used to be able to see, touch, hear, eat and smell. Pretty cancer tbh

[@TomMiller-i9f]

Nice video Finn

[@fruitlessadventures]

cheers mate

[@feelincrispy7053]

I know about these trees. Visited some real big ones still alive across the state. I’m Victorian lol

[@michelejay5218]

Not only did we clear the trees but, goodness knows, what things we've put into the soil with farming crops like potatoes.

[@ytmndman]

There is an unconfirmed report of an ancient petrified tree trunk found in Texas that was over 273 meters tall. However, this is almost certainly not accurate.

[@craiggreaves6407]

Check out The Big Fig that stood on the Alstonville Plato in norherrn NSW. It was mentioned in Captain Cooks logs as a single tree 20km inland that stood out amongst everything. Its roots where traced for 11km down the vally.

[@fruitlessadventures]

@@craiggreaves6407 will do that sounds very interesting

[@mrdeanvincent]

The Big Fig was about 60m tall. Would love a source for the 11km roots, that sounds incredible.

[@maddog789]

Great video! Thanks

[@fruitlessadventures]

Glad you liked it!

[@robertoperfecto9041]

Pardon me if I am incorrect but I'm fairly certain the local aboriginals didn't have any metal tools to cut trees? Custodians of the forest?

[@plasmatic7081]

Nice! If you ever get a chance to visit WA, be sure to check out the Valley of the Giants, basically a whole forest of enormous trees. Though not the tallest in the state, I think some are 'only' around 50m tall and are still pretty impressive.

[@tommymarco]

Nice video mate

[@classydays43]

I'm glad Vic still has some biodiversity. Here in NSW it's all the same tree and nothing else. Not even the birds remain as they used to.

[@fruitlessadventures]

Shame

[@sophiekenney5054]

The lyre bird sound affects 😫

[@fruitlessadventures]

@@sophiekenney5054 🥲

[@malcolmrickarby2313]

They go together beautifully. One of my favourite groups of very tall trees is at Cambarville near Lake Mountain. Lyrebirds can be heard and sighted all along the walk from the picnic ground.😊

[@RustyTreeMan]

Great effort. Many of the pre 1900 claims for 400 ft plus mountain ash and Douglas fir trees in North America were just that, claims that simply can't be proven. There were about 10 400-500 ft mountain ash trees mentioned by Baron Von Mueller with none proven or even photographed. There are however some truly giant base images from the era which only until recently in Tasmania have been matched for size. Even the Thorpdale Tree at 114 m with the sign you visited wasn't photographed so its height isn't proven. I do think they did originally exceed 100 m once, a number just reached by Centurion in Tasmania at 100.5 m tall, discovered in 2008 and still alive but fire damaged. Even though I was born in Melbourne and love the mountain ash, the Coast Redwood is by far the tallest tree with over 2500 individuals recorded over 100 m tall, tallest Hyperion at 116 m tall!! This compares to 1 mountain ash over 100 m and a newly discovered Tibetan Cypress at 102 m. There are currently no Douglas fir over 100 m but around 30 over 95 m tall though which is pretty impressive. Keep up the research! 👍

[@fruitlessadventures]

thanks for the info :)

[@RustyTreeMan]

@@fruitlessadventures When I was a kid I read and believed the mountain ash were 400-500 ft tall once, but as I got older and met and talked to a few other tree hunters and read about other wild claims, I became more sceptical as the evidence was non existent. However the vast size of the massive bases were real, they just weren’t as tall as people thought. 👍

[@Photosynthesisbeing]

Sweet little vid mate, do some more little doco's.

[@fruitlessadventures]

Will do

[@williampatrickfurey]

If it helps, I've assumed that the Great American Chestnut was logged down after pine pitch was spread at the base and a photograph was taken for records, before the tree was cut down. I say this, knowing that even laurel wilt disease didn't wipe out another less hearty fruit tree, in it's entirety. (Also because they seemed to be willing to take like a third of the total of California's rivaling redwoods too. 😉)

[@f7ipper]

Sounds and looks like Bernie Mace you filmed there - a man who delights in possibilities.

[@NicholasFadow-o4q]

incorect a random tree in malasia is tallest flowering plant dont use outdated info

[@fruitlessadventures]

not true

[@alexanderwootten5160]

Check out Yellow Meranti. Thought of as the current tallest flowering plants. Love your video

[@burner8126]

Here in Tas, I was once talking to an explosives guy, and he said they used to go out to the forests and blow up the huge trees to get them out of the way. The timber wasn't any good, apparently, and they were too big to cut. Then they just plant production forest. It's so messed up, so much diversity, then, monoculture. Look down if you ever fly over. Slash and burn no f's given.

[@DeepseaSteve]

Always makes me laugh when farmers tell us how they improve the land. The land was fine before monoculture crops and intensive farming

[@raphlvlogs271]

Eucalypts are mostly really intolerant of shade so when they started out that place would have been much more open

[@emceeboogieboots1608]

Probably when it germinated, perhaps after fire? Then it out competed everything that grew around it to reach just that bit higher. Sadly our lives are too short to see this sort of thing. And we would cut them down anyway 😔

[@stevenlaube7535]

I read it was 147m tall ?

[@keza3250]

It's a shame we cut downs so much old growth Forest, In my home district around Guyra we had massive old growth sub alpine forests, Guyra had 3 timber mills an I remember seeing an old log as wide as a two lane road beside the old mill back 1996, There still logging the old growth Forrest outside of Guyra called the warra state forest I've seen logs as wide or wider than semi trucks trailer being hauled out

[@fruitlessadventures]

very sad

[@peterdixon7144]

Thanks, great video but one quick correction. Bushfires in Australia are not getting worse. The reduction in burn acreage over the last 100 years has dropped dramatically. Furthermore, the veracity of the most recent mega-fire in NSW can be largely attributed to ground fuel from poor forest management. This was made clear in the NSW Royal Commission. The conditions leading to that fire (very hot, very dry) are consistent with almost all major fire events in Australia.

[@KaiChampney]

More big trees please

[@neoAREAXIS]

Tassie Huon is probably the widest. Hehe

[@jakebarlow100]

Seeing the thorpdale clip threw me off, i live 10 minutes from that tree and used to pass it every day on the schoolbus!! Amd yes thorpy is definitely famous for its potatoes 🤣

[@phillipwest2478]

Overseas markets know we have the best fish and (wood) chips in the world.

[@cavekritter1]

If you vavent allready look up "the Ada tree" in vic near poweltown. Go have a look. Pics do not do it justice!! It was a big tree when capn cook bumped into the reef in 1770!

[@paulinehenwood9927]

Finn thakyou for your mini doco, didn't realise that🙂

[@cheeks7050]

Hey mate your information about the aboriginals preserving biodiversity is wrong. Where to begin? There is a hypothesis that eucalypts dominate Australia now because they were the trees able to survive the bushfires the aboriginals would start for hunting purposes. When you turn to fauna it is clear that all the megafauna went extinct at the same time as aboriginal peoples arrived in Australia ~40,000 y.a. Take the famous Tasmanian Tiger, it is native to the mainland, but it was only present on Tasmania when the Europeans arrived, hence the name "Tasmanian" Tiger. Most likely it was outcompeted and exterminated on the mainland by a combination of dingos (being an early domestic dog), and aboriginal peoples. The same is true of the "Tasmanian" Devil.

[@fruitlessadventures]

mountain ash need fire to regenerate

[@cheeks7050]

@@fruitlessadventures What's that got to do with aboriginal people starting fires for hunting, which probably led to the extinction of much fauna, and other trees besides the Mountain Ash?

[@malcolmrickarby2313]

@@cheeks7050they were not lighting fires to hunt. They were managing the landscape with the tools they had and a very deep knowledge of each ecosystem and it’s care. They did cool burns in a patchwork pattern usually in late autumn. This prevents intense bushfires and provides new growth to establish.😊

[@cheeks7050]

@@malcolmrickarby2313 No, it is a hunting technique. If you have any evidence to back up your claim of continental-wide ecology, cite it here. Aboriginals then didn't even have the concept of ecology as you propose, which is unsurprising as no one else did, either.

[@jonnies]

This is the greatest

[@fruitlessadventures]

cheers man

[@Grizz_Dub]

Great video on an amazing tree! Thanks for putting it together. However I’ve got to disagree with the 500 years comment. By that stage these trees would have senesced and without a fire, no new generation of Mountain Ash would have grown. In that amount of time without disturbance, the forest would have changed to be dominated by Acacia species

[@StuffandThings_]

Old growth trees are significantly more fire resistant, and frequent small fires won't typically kill them. So I guess it would be a disturbance, but not a serious or unnatural one.

[@fruitlessadventures]

Thanks for the feedback, I got the 500 year information off a sign at a national park so I am unsure.

[@Grizz_Dub]

@@fruitlessadventures yeah fair enough, you’d think that’s a pretty good source! My understanding from memory is E. regnans lifespan is up to about 350 years, but happy to find out if it’s otherwise. Keep doing these vids mate, great to see our bush get more recognition!

[@Grizz_Dub]

@@StuffandThings_ yeah that’s true, though mountain ash forests are normally too wet to burn in mild conditions where you’d see low intensity fire, so you would normally see them burn in bad conditions. They kind of depend on that to re-seed, but won’t produce seed for their first 20 years or so, so they need fairly infrequent fire, or as you said, a low intensity fire that doesn’t kill off the adults

[@Handleyman]

Well said!

[@lordsrednuas]

Known as mountain ash on the mainland, swampgum in tas

[@fruitlessadventures]

Thanks for the info 😊

[@jasondoust4935]

Mountain Ash, Victorian Ash, Tasmanian Oak. All e. Regnans. Their timber is beautiful, with colour variation from soil. Magnificent trees that become great habitat for forest creatures. The woodworker in me loves to work with it, and the conservationist in me loves to see it standing. When I taught woodwork, I would hold a piece up to a class of 18 year olds and ask how old their parents were before explaining that this stick was probably about 70 years old. It gave them pause for thought before they built a piece of furniture with it.

[@moabird6983]

so go plant some trees tingle from west coast, sydney blue gums and mountain ash , as protesting does NOT plant trees . . .

[@williamhumphrey9766]

My; haven't we been drinking the 'coolaid'.

[@StuffandThings_]

The tallest tree ever recorded is actually a Douglas Fir in Washington state, the Nooksack Giant at a whopping 465 feet tall. Some very dedicated folks have dug through records and found quite a few reliable records of truly colossal Douglas Firs over 400 ft tall, consistently along the margins of the Puget Lowlands where they meet the wetter mountains, a perfect environment for huge trees. Tasmanian Mountain Ash may very well have outdone the famous redwoods but they're certainly not the ultimate kings of height. Ecological amnesia is a sneaky thing. Redwoods, considered the highest in the world, were at a mere position #3 before humans messed everything up and cut everything taller down.

[@fruitlessadventures]

@@StuffandThings_ yeah in the video I said the Noosak giant was the biggest :)

[@StuffandThings_]

@@fruitlessadventures Ah yeah I kinda glossed over that bit lol, it was subtle. I still think I'd award it the crown though, not only did that Mountain Ash lose its top naturally (and thus, while it may have at one time been the tallest it definitely wasn't even before cutting of either Douglas Fir or Mountain Ash began in earnest) but the Nooksack Giant was measured on the ground after it was cut. When cutting Doug fir, often the butt swell of the tree is left on the ground, and this can sometimes be a good few meters of trunk, so the tree may have been taller in its totality. I've also seen a lot of people questioning the true height of the Nooksack Giant, but considering the abundance of records of other massive trees in similar environs (not to mention the reliable measurement method and tendency among loggers to be stoic and not exaggerate) I feel its probably quite reliable, and worth mentioning this extra tidbit of information to back it up. Either way, both were absolute giants and its a huge shame how much has been logged, even to this day massive Doug fir and Mountain Ash are still being cut.

[@fruitlessadventures]

@@StuffandThings_ thanks for the information, I was just making the case for the Mountain Ash, as it was my sole focus for the video.

[@andrewmarie9747]

Nice informative video champ but just one note coming from an old fella who’s seen it all, there is no such thing as climate change🤔 in my opinion. You really seem like an extremely intelligent young man who has only ever heard one rhetoric so I implore you to take the time to research everything climate change related

[@ARCHANGELMKL]

I know my tree AAM

[@neoAREAXIS]

A town known for potato, the worlds shortest plant.. hehe. Home sweet home

[@fruitlessadventures]

ha ha

[@malcolmrickarby2313]

@@fruitlessadventuresone of my favourite places to see the mountain ash is at the botanical garden in Olinda. The trees tower over the car park and right near the entrance is a very tall tree and in between its buttress roots grows the baby bird orchid in flower now and must be the shortest flowering plant under the tallest flowering plant.

[@wazaagbreak-head6039]

The pandering to the aboriginal populous as an Aboriginal is offensive. We didn't maintain balance we just didn't have the technology to destroy our environment. We are still human just like you

[@fruitlessadventures]

I didn’t mean to offend, I just said what I read whilst researching about aboriginal land management.

[@rods6405]

"political intentions" then why mention these things "spiritual belief" and "Clmiate Chnage" BS We can always plant more trees!

[@haroldas1]

Good song choice, but pick something without vocals :)

[@fruitlessadventures]

thanks for the feedback :)

[@Bushwackerinpa]

your video is VERY quiet.

[@fruitlessadventures]

turn it up :)

[@noahmead4652]

I subscrib

[@fruitlessadventures]

thank you

[@Karl-Benny]

Been there to long better cut it Down

[@louiseeckert1574]

LouiseAustralia🦘

[@RyanBradberry-n6w]

So sad

[@Sladeford]

What a fckn shame😞

[@kennethwrench7204]

🙏❤️

[@petewest839]

Was interested until you blurted out " climate Change "

[@LokiOdinssnn]

"humankind" is such a cringe made up word, if you cant say mankind atleast go with humanity.