details

Statement of Significance

The trees are significant:
• as outstanding examples of this species of remnant, pre-European settlement vegetation,
• for their genetic value as a result of their extreme age, rarity and limited distribution,
• for the significant contribution they makes to the Gondwana Rainforests of Australia World Heritage area, of which Springbrook National Park is a part,
• as magnificent old trees, the bases of which exhibit the unusual physical features of twisted nodules where the soil has been worn away over centuries,
• for their contemporary association with the community as a much visited natural tourist attraction.

History

The three nominated Antarctic Beech trees grow in the Springbrook National Park, which is located west of the Gold Coast. The park is included in the Gondwana Rainforests of Australia World Heritage area formalised in 1994. Before European settlement, the sub-tropical rainforests in Queensland and New South Wales were some of the most extensive rainforests in Australia. According to UNESCO:

The Gondwana Rainforests contains the largest and most significant remaining stands of subtropical rainforest and Antarctic Beech (Nothofagus moorei) cool temperate rainforests in the world, the largest and most significant areas of warm temperate rainforest and one of only two remaining large areas of Araucarian rainforest in Australia.

Requiring the unique environment of a cool temperate rainforest between altitudes of 500 metres and 1550 metres, Antarctic Beech trees grow in only a few spots in Australia. Springbrook National Park is one of these places. This species of tree once covered Antarctica, before its present iced-over state. As Gondwana broke apart 180 million years ago and the South became colder, the Antarctic Beeches worked themselves up to more suitable climates. These trees grow by coppicing. The tree sends out new shoots radially from the base of the original trunk, and these shoot eventually grow into clones of the parent tree forming a ring of trunks, all belonging to the one tree. This is the case with the nominated trees.

Location

These three Springbrook National Park trees are the oldest of this forest and are the parent trees to a surrounding Antarctic Beech forest. They have an average height of 33 metres and an average circumference of 13 metres. The trees are situated on the left hand side of the track between the car park at the end of Repeater Station Road and the Best of All Lookouts. They are about 300 metres along the path.