backstory

There is little official documentation or recognition of Tasmanian giant trees. When Victorian-based big tree legend Brett Mifsud commenced Tasmanian giant tree searches in the 1990s, he found that information was sparse and mainly anecdotal. We all owe so much to Brett and his years of dedicated work.

Forest conservation campaigns spearheaded by The Wilderness Society sparked the public interest in tall trees at Beech Creek near Wayatinah in the 1980s, and subsequently a decade later in the Styx Valley. Responding to the growing public attention, Forestry Tasmania, now rebranded as Sustainable Timber Tasmania, commissioned a survey in early 2000 to measure the heights of Tasmania’s tallest trees (Kostoglou 2000). At that time, height was the main criterion for recognition of exceptional trees. Kostoglou (2000) compiled historic reports of Tasmanian trees up to 101 m tall and noted that these were considerably shorter than estimates of Victorian tree heights in the 19th century. 

The loftiest tree measured in the 2000 survey was 92 m tall — 1 m taller than the tallest existing, reliably reported Victorian tree — and therefore just sufficient for Tasmania to claim the world’s tallest hardwood at the time. The ten tallest Tasmanian trees then exceeded 85 m, and this apparently inspired Forestry Tasmania to set the threshold for giant tree protection in state forest at that height. The policy was revised to include trees of large volume in 2002, following the discovery of the 404 cubic metre El Grande, which had an impressive girth of 19 m, but at 79 m tall it would not have otherwise qualified for giant protection. Sadly El Grande was killed by Forestry Tasmania after they clearfell logged the surrounding old growth forest and fatally burnt the tree as part of a “regeneration burn”. 

Largely due to the work of a few amateurs, the number of recognised giants has considerably increased in the past 20 years, and the tallest now known tree Centurion is 100.5m tall.