They may be just saplings, yet Canberra’s National Arboretum’s emerging trees are encouraging more people into the Brindabella Mountains in search of their grand relatives from the northern hemisphere.
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So much so organisers of a guided tour of Bendora Arboretum in Namadgi National Park on Sunday had to turn people away because of the numbers wanting to go.
John Turnbull is unsurprised. The retired CSIRO scientist, who led a tour of 40 people through Bendora, first became aware of its special qualities in 1965 when he arrived in Canberra.
Before that botanist Lindsay Pryor selected the site of about 15 hectares in the 1940s for its deep soil and rainfall which was almost double that of Canberra’s.
Mr Pryor was looking for one of the best sites to grow northern hemisphere conifers.
"There were a lot of arboreta, two or three were a bit special and Bendora was one, because it had such a good range of different species of conifers including lovely larch and sugar pines that you don't see in the lower areas of Canberra,’’ Mr Turnbull said.
A forestry senior researcher, Mr Turnbull was sent to North America in 1968 to collect tree seeds which he later planted at Bendora, in place of species which had not thrived.
‘'I really do enjoy going back there and taking groups to enjoy it with me. I have seen it over the best part of 50 years from 1965. It is a privilege.’’
National parks and catchment manager of regional operations Brett McNamara said it was a magic day on Sunday for people fortunate enough to walk through the forest floor for a comparison of what the National Arboretum will look like when it matures.
"It was quite surreal. As we started the walk a pair of gang gangs flew over the top. I'm not sure if you know their calls, it's like a squeaky gate, it just sort of echoed over the forest,'' Mr McNamara said.
One of 23 arboreta planted as experiments to show foresters which softwoods would thrive in south-east Australia, Bendora escaped the disastrous 2003 Canberra firestorm which started within metres of the old trees.
Hazard-burning saved the heritage-listed trees and forester's hut.
“That's why it is so important, it is the only one left from the original 1940s, 1950s plantings of these scientific experiments,’’ Mr McNamara said.
“If you were an ANU forester who started back in the 1960s and 1970s, you would have spent time at one of these arboretums doing research or maintenance work.’’
Mr McNamara said Pinus radiata stood well above the other trees, showing why it was the preferred softwood for timber plantations across south-east Australia.
Markings on the forest giants record big dumps of snow which stunted their growth in the 1950s and 1960s.
"You look at the tree rings, you can see there was a growth period and all of a sudden there was nothing. Now you look at them and they are growing again,’’ Mr McNamara said.
Mr McNamara said another tour of Bendora would be held in spring to cater for a resurgent interest in the territory's arboreta.
