Marysville - The Big Tree
The Big Tree is located in the Yarra Ranges National Park 18 km from Marysville and 10 minute walk from the Cambarville Day Visitor Area. The Big Tree, standing almost 88m high, is one of the tallest living mountain ash still known to exist in Victoria.
The Mountain Ash is the second tallest tree in the world (behind the California Redwood), the tallest of all flowering plants and the tallest of all Eucalypt trees. It is an evergreen as it keeps its leaves all year. Mountain Ash can grow to over 90 metres in cooler and moist mountain areas with deep rich moist soil. There are records of trees over 100 metres.
The Mountain Ash cannot regenerate after a hot bushfire, instead regrowing from seeds they release from its gumnut as a result of the heat. Once released and germinated, the young tree requires a great deal of light for its initial growth stage. During this time they can grow at over a metre per year, making them one of the fastest growing trees in the Eucalypt family.
If fires regularly burn the same Mountain Ash forest, the Mountain Ash will become extinct in that area as there is no time for the young trees to reach seeding maturity and release their seeds. Seeding maturity usually takes between 18-22 years. In these circumstances, it is not uncommon for man to intervene and reseed large areas of Mountain Ash forest using seeding methods including aerial seeding.
If Mountain Ash are left to grow through their full life cycle, they can reach ages of up to 400 years before dying and being replaced by the younger competing trees around it.
Directions
1. From Marysville, travel along the Marysville-Woods Point Road for 18 km (around 27 min) and turn left
into the Camberville Day Visitor Area at the marked sign on your left.
2. Walk 500 m to the Big Tree by following the signs.
3. You can also access the Cumberland Falls and Cora Lynn Falls along this track by following the signs.
Location
Marysville-Woods Point Road, Marysville 3779 Map
Web Links
→ Yarra Ranges National Park - Lady Talbot Drive, Cambaraville Historic (PDF)
→ Cora Lynn Falls (World of Waterfalls)
→ The Best Family Activities in the Yarra Valley
