‘Imagine if it died on my watch?’ The fight to save one ‘ancient’ Adelaide tree

Walter Marsh - TheGuardian - 22/03
Cities lose thousands of mature trees a year. On Overbury Drive, neighbours were determined to protect a solitary giant dying red gum – stuck right in the middle of their road
Neighbours Paolo Rossi, Carlo Jensen, Rachael Nielsen and son Gerry are protective of the two-century-old river red gum that grows in the middle of the road on Overbury Drive in Adelaide’s Clarence Park. Photograph: Sia Duff/The Guardian
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Neighbours Paolo Rossi, Carlo Jensen, Rachael Nielsen and son Gerry are protective of the two-century-old river red gum that grows in the middle of the road on Overbury Drive in Adelaide’s Clarence Park. Photograph: Sia Duff/The Guardian

‘Imagine if it died on my watch?’ The fight to save one ‘ancient’ Adelaide tree

Cities lose thousands of mature trees a year. On Overbury Drive, neighbours were determined to protect a solitary giant dying red gum – stuck right in the middle of their road

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It’s a striking image; in a suburban landscape where nature has been largely pushed aside to make way for roads, houses and driveways, the thick craggy trunk of a towering river red gum tree stands defiantly in place, forcing the bitumen to squeeze and buckle around it. Bang in the middle of the street.

Barely a day goes by without the residents of Overbury Drive noticing a carload of tourists or curious locals pulling up in their quiet cul-de-sac, cameras at the ready.

Photos of the tree, over 20 metres tall and more than 200 years old by some estimates, regularly go viral online. An unofficial Google Maps listing for the “Sacred Tree” guides visitors to this otherwise unremarkable Adelaide backstreet.

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The river red gum on Overbury Drive is over 20 metres tall and more than 200 years old. Photograph: Sia Duff/The Guardian

At sunset, its silhouette seems to radiate gold light as rainbow lorik...
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