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Statement of Significance

The site of Brisbane City Botanic Gardens was selected as a public garden in 1828 by New South Wales Colonial Botanist Charles Fraser, three years after the establishment of the European settlement. Originally the garden was planted with food crops to feed the convicts. In 1855, a portion of the land was declared a 'botanic reserve' and Walter Hill was appointed as curator. The Queensland Heritage Register describes the Brisbane City Botanic Gardens as 'the most significant, non-aboriginal cultural landscape in Queensland having a continuous horticultural history since 1828, without any significant loss of land area or change in use over time.' It incorporates Brisbane's most mature gardens and features many rare and unusual species of plants. In 1826 a Crows Ash was felled to mark the spot where the Moreton Bay Penal Settlement government garden was to be established. This particular tree was planted in the gardens in 1884 and is an example of one of the native species which originally covered the area, before it was cleared for the penal settlement. The genus name commemorates the explorer captain Matthew Flinders.
This beautiful tree is in a prominent place in these historic gardens and is therefore of great landscape value. It is a good example of a tree that is native to Queensland and New South Wales and representative of the species of tree that was felled to mark the spot where, in 1826, an earlier Crows Ash was felled to mark the location where the Moreton Bay Penal Settlement government garden was to be established.
This tree is found between the formal flower garden and the river, in the eastern part of the garden.