Another 100 trees including an Alphington Red Gum and Yallambie Hoop Pine 154/16,000 trees

Blog Post – Tree Walks 2 and 3 - Alphington and Yallambie

12/06/25

Tree Walk number Two – Alphington Park – 51 trees

I’m combining my walks with my foster care assessment work, as well as keeping up my training for the upcoming Run Melbourne half marathon in July, but meeting the trees are a priority and highlight of my day. I’m trying out my new finger-counter, to keep track of trees more accurately, I tell you what, it’s a fabulous little invention, too.

On this walk, I was literally bowled over by an absolutely stunning Redgum, that I noticed as soon as I got out of the car. It’s set on the corner of the park, and how anyone walks past it and does not bow down to it in awe is beyond me. I had to look at it from a variety of angles, and I will be visiting it again on many occasions, that’s for sure. Some research after the walk taught me that it’s a notable tree, which is ‘hundreds of years old, and sadly the sole remaining red gum from pre-white settlement in the park.’[i] Now that is sad. Imagine if the park was full of these beauties, it goes to show what’s been lost.

After admiring this lovely tree, I continued my walk and was very happy to meet a wide range of lovely trees, including Melaleucas, a Bunya Pine, various spotted gums, lovely eucalyptus trees with a striated pattern (please excuse the very slow development of my Eucalyptus knowledge, I’m trying to learn as quickly as possible!) I spent a lot of time on this walk really looking closely at the trees and touching the bark to see if they had a powdery trunk. There was one eucalyptus with a very cute little face on it’s trunk, and I noticed that what I think are Eucalyptus Sideroxylon, or Mugga ironbark, are very prevalent here, and were all flowering pink flowers during my walk, though they had flowers in groups of six and five, but perhaps some were missing from the small sample I was able to collect from the ground.

I know it would sound a bit silly to the more scientific, but I am finding it very exciting to realise that I can learn how to identify trees from their fruits, flowers and leaves, and that there are so many different varieties of eucalyptus. My whole life has changed, because now, everywhere I look, there is something for me to learn! I can’t even express what a joy this is but let me hint that it’s a really big one!

There were a few European trees, of little note really, and the path led down into an interesting wetland area, where I was honoured to spot a sweet pair of Little black cormorants, sitting on a log in the swamp. An interesting walk has been set up with informative signs, which tell the history of this area, and there are the remnants of the old Alphington Swimming Pool, and children’s wading pool, to have a look at, and some great signs indicating some things to find in the bush, with lovely botanical drawings of gum nuts and leaves.

Embarrassingly, I accidentally trespassed into the back yard of the View Street Garden, owned by Kate Herd, (sorry Kate!), but it was nice to see the lovely bronze statue by Shona Nunan (2002).[ii] Again – apologies Kate. I did reflect, though, how odd it is really that natural environments, including areas that edge onto the banks of rivers, are even allowed to be privately owned. Shouldn’t they be for us all to enjoy? I know this is complex and I won’t harp on it, but I felt uneasy about it and wanted to mention my feelings, as these experiences are going to be part of this whole journey, and part of what the trees are telling me, right?

 Tree Walk number Three – Yallambie Park, Monday 9^th June 2025 – 50 trees.

It was raining on this walk, just lightly, but it was also so nice to get out of the house and explore another new area. I can’t believe I haven’t been here before now that I have seen its beauty, honesty, for the whole walk I was marveling over what a hidden treasure this place is.

I could hear Currawongs, and see parrots flying into the trees, and the Plenty River was flowing with gusto. There were so many healthy and wonderful trees to choose from here. The contrast to Alphington stood out to me here. It felt more free and friendly, and the overall health of the environment was much greater, as the area has been restored to almost pre-colonial condition from years of hard work by the Banyule council and the volunteer group, ‘Friends of Plenty River.’ [iii]

I admired a beautiful bronze-wing pigeon, sitting quietly and calmly in the branches, there were later quite a few of them around. There were many old, towering Eucalypts, of various varieties, which were impressive and grand, and in the rain, were clean, fresh and shiny. A lovely gentleman stopped to ask me if I’d seen the tawny frogmouth back where I’d come from and advised there were wallabies up further, sadly I didn’t see either, but it was really nice of him to let me know.

A funny little sight was a pair of glasses someone had lost, sitting on a post.

So many wonderful and glorious eucalyptus trees, many with long strings of bark hanging from their branches, so high up and forming bouncy beds underneath their wonderfully thick trunks.

I noticed a lady talking on her phone about something distressing, and I thought, ‘what would happen, if you just stopped, and listened to the sounds of this bushland, and took it in, and then had the phone call after that. Would it have had a different outcome?’ No judgement, just a reflection, as I know that the bush might be a healing place to buffer the effects of a difficult call. We can never judge what’s going on for people. But I do think the benefit of leaving the phone at home or in your pocket at least, when walking in this glorious natural cathedral, is huge.

When, after a nice little rest and a cuppa from my thermos, I wandered out into the open grassed area, I was gifted with the sight of a humongous hoop pine! What an absolute knock-out that was. Initially I thought it was a Bunya pine, but no – a hoop pine, resplendent with hundreds of prickly young cones, and so wonderful to see! Like the glorious Red Gum at Alphington, this one was very hard to leave, I wanted to camp under its amazing branches for a week.

On the way back to the car, as I passed little ducks enjoying the puddles, and watched the parrots flying around, I felt elated, despite being a little damp and cold. What a learning experience, and I now know that there is a giant, fabulous Hoop Pine in Yallambie that I will definitely be revisiting very soon. What a place to live in. I was overwhelmed and acknowledged with gratitude that opportunity, thanking the people of Kulin nation that I was able to walk on Wurundjeri land and experience such a joyful walk.

So, I'm up to the grand total of 154 trees, after three tree-walks. Quite a few to go ... already I'm starting to realise the immensity of 16,000 trees, and I've only just started. Imagine if 'only' these 154, amazing, awesome trees were taken away, what a loss that would be to our world. And yet .... 16,000 trees (and I've recently read it was more likely well over 17,000 or more) ... were just taken for the building of a freeway, on one project. This is making me sad. We need to realise what is really important in the world. I am so glad I'm doing this project. 

I acknowledge the Wurundjeri people, Traditional Custodians of this land, and their deep connection to the Yarra River and its subsidiaries, and the surrounding country. I also recognize the importance of the eucalyptus trees, particularly the Manna Gum (Eucalyptus viminalis) – a tree that holds significant cultural and spiritual meaning for the Wurundjeri people and I thank them deeply for caring for these trees over many thousands of years. 

Please remember, all text and photos on these pages are copyright to Sue Oaks, to request permission to use, please email me at sixteenthousandtrees@gmail.com Thank you! 

REFERENCES: 

[i] Alphington Bowling Club, https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5be3a6ecc3c16a7645316708/t/61b99f4b04568578daf0441a/1639554978972/ABC_SMALL.pdf

[ii] Article in Sydney Morning Herald - https://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/gardeners-massive-alphington-block-inspires-book-of-native-endeavors-20171027-gz9t9v.html, viewed 12/06/25.  

[iii] https://www.banyule.vic.gov.au/Events-activities/Parks-and-reserves/Yallambie-Park, viewed 09/06/24.