Imagine Canberra's streets and parks the urban forest without trees. Canberra would be bereft of one of its most definitively memorable components, a primary aspect of the image that people bring to mind when referring to the capital. Trees are such a consistent companion to our view and experience of Canberra that there is a danger of taking them for granted, as though they were immutable. But, like any living organism, they have limited life-spans, and once tree species are planted in urban conditions they often do not live as long as they would in natural habitat. Of Canberra's urban forest of 630,000 trees, 400,000 may have to be removed and replanted in the next 20 years.
Like the city itself, the urban forest has a specific history. It is a story of not just when or where particular tree types were planted, but why they were planted and who was involved in their choice and planting. Here is an integral part of the story of events, people and place through time in the making of the city's landscape. It makes for fascinating reading.
After 1909's recommendation by Charles Scrivener of the Limestone Plains as the site for the federal capital, and before the 1911 international competition and Griffin's winning entry in 1912, attention was focused on the impending need for trees in the soon-to-be developed city. Underlying this was a 1910 report by the geographer Griffith Taylor on the eroded, rabbit-infested, denuded state of the plains and hills of the capital site. Scrivener added his voice and in 1910 it was decided to establish a nursery at Acton (now under Lake Burley Griffin).
Charles Weston, that remarkable innovator and father of Canberra's early tree planting, visited the site time and again in 1911 and 1912 to advise on species for the nursery before his appointment as officer-in-charge, afforestation branch and his arrival in Canberra on May 5, 1913, to take up his duties.
That same year, to supplement Acton Nursery, Weston chose land at what is now Yarralumla Nursery and Westbourne Woods for his experimental plots, arboretum and plant nursery. This action marked a critical start to landscape treatment of the Canberra site. The nursery and testing area were allocated 40 ha; an arboretum (later Westbourne Woods), 120ha. In the arboretum Australian trees, exotics and conifers were to be grown and tested in three divisions.
It is a lasting testimony to Weston's foresight that many of the trees and shrubs still used for public planting in Canberra are species found to be successful by Weston's meticulous testing: for example, Eucalyptus mannifera, E. cinerea, Cedrus atlantica and Quercus palustris. He experimented with exotic plants and indigenous species, including a range of eucalypts. The period 1921-26 was a particularly productive time for Weston in Canberra. He was responsible for policies and planting that gave the city the character of a tree-dominated urban landscape. He realised street planting and planting around buildings needed to be augmented by shelter belts for wind protection and screening, for example at Haig Park. The significance is that a landscape planning policy of extensive planting was instituted through the city and then carried out.
Some indication of Weston's achievement can be seen from the fact that between 1921 and 1924 alone 1,162,942 trees were planted in what are now inner suburbs. Many of these remain, for example in Reid, Braddon, Griffith, Yarralumla and the Parliamentary Triangle.
John Sulman, appointed chairman of the Federal Capital Advisory Committee in 1921, had written extensively on town planning. Of relevance to Weston's planning patterns were Sulman's views on parks, gardens and tree planting. He proposed that ''much variety is possible in the planting of streets and boulevards'' and ''except in the very business quarters, or in the very narrow residential roads, it is usually possible to obtain at least one or two rows of trees''. An excellent example can be seen on Elimatta Street at Reid Oval. He poses the question ''why should not our own Australian trees be given a trial?'' and makes clear his position on species mix with the direction that ''One inflexible rule should, however, be followed, viz., that in each length of street, or avenue in a park, there shall be only one variety, and those as nearly of equal growth and vitality as possible, for nothing looks worse than a heterogeneous line or broken line''.
In keeping with this was Sulman's view that houses must front on to ''a continuous margin of grass without dividing fences'' to create the feeling of a park-like space. Sulman also decided that overhead service lines should be sited at the rear of residential plots, thereby allowing Weston to plant large trees along the public nature strips.
Lindsay Pryor, distinguished forester, botanist and academic, took up Weston's mantle in 1944 and continued until 1958. A lasting testimony to his ability and knowledge of plant material lies in his residential street-tree planting which adds so much to Canberra's charm and setting and its meanings for residents. His inquiring mind and keen intellect sought out species from abroad that might be used in Canberra to supplement those already used or known. He realised the opportunity for a range of oaks to be used. He collected seed and colleagues sent him seed, thereby adding more varieties to Weston's ''palette''. Sulman's planning principles, along with Weston's and Pryor's work, shaped not only Canberra's early suburbs but post-World War II development, not least in the heady decades from 1958-1988 under the aegis of the National Capital Development Commission. The commission continued the policy of generous public planting.
The result is our remarkable legacy of an urban forest, but it is a legacy showing signs of decay and the need for renewal. That is why there is a need to act and plan now to conserve what is tantamount to a public arboretum of outstanding value.
Professor Taylor is an adjunct professor in the Research School of Humanities at the Australian National University, a member of the Urban Forest Renewal Program expert reference group and author of Canberra: City in a Landscape.
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