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https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/mar/23/adelaide-river-red-gum-tree-overbury-drive-south-australia>
"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.
At sunset, its silhouette seems to radiate gold light as rainbow lorikeets
screech and swoop around its branches. Their nests are hard to spot from the
road – high up above the parked cars, wheelie bins and power lines, the tree’s
vast canopy could be its own little world.
“The tree is basically why I moved here,” says Paolo Rossi, who has lived on
Overbury Drive for two years.
The 36-year-old architect’s first-floor flat looks out over the tree, allowing
Rossi and his Italian greyhound Fifi to glimpse a history that predates the
establishment of the South Australian state itself. “It’s so powerful as a
living monument to something a bit ancient,” he says.
“For me, it’s amazing to look out my window and see this thing that has been
around before any of this existed.”"
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
