The “Toowoomba Tree”

 Ribbonwood
Euroschinus falcatus
Family: ANACARDIACEAE
Common names of plants are revealing, and old common names even more so. In our book-learned, TV-educated, and internet-aware society we are often more familiar with the great outdoors as seen through the eyes (and the cameras) of others from elsewhere than from our own experiences in our own environment.
So we of Toowoomba have, for the most part, forgotten that this magnificent tree was once so characteristic of our town that it was known as the “Toowoomba Tree”.
Holding hands around the trunk of this lovely specimen is an activity that would require four adults!
The tree pictured below is considerably smaller - perhaps half the size. It may be familiar to many of you, who drive past it on the highway from Highfields to Toowoomba.
Nowadays, of course, the characteristic big tree of the city is the camphor laurel.
One of our ex-councillors told me, when we were discussing environmental matters, we couldn’t possibly get rid of them as they “give Toowoomba its character”. That, in this new age of environmental awareness, the character in question is considered by many to be a bad one, is a bit of an embarrassment, but there are still plenty of Toowoomba residents who are prepared to defend the camphor laurels and support a municipal policy of continuing to plant them in “heritage” areas of the city.
What a pity that our city fathers, back in the nineteenth century, did not recognise that Toowoomba already had a far older heritage of magnificent trees.
It’s a curious thing, this “heritage” concept. Nobody’s heritage is entirely benign. Ours contains, for instance, a sorry record of aboriginal massacres. The fact that this is a “heritage” activity does not justify its continuation! The same could be said of our gardening heritage. Where it does no harm, its perpetuation is a fine thing. Where it is in conflict with our environmental heritage, the same does not apply.
“Toowoomba trees” are more commonly known nowadays - by those who know them at all - as “ribbonwoods”. Few old ones remain here, and new ones are rarely planted.
Yet they are an obviously good choice for parks, school grounds, acreage residential blocks, and anywhere where large, shady trees with no bad habits are wanted.
They are very fast growing on our red soil. They need absolutely no watering after their first month or two even through the kind of drought we have had over the last four years. They are happy in full sun or shade, and cope well with exposure to wind.
They are, however, vulnerable to heavy frost when young. For certain success they need protection through their first two or three winters.
I would love to see a programme of gradual replacement of Toowoomba’s camphor laurels with ribbonwoods. They would complement our heritage buildings and older parts of town in very much the same fashion as camphor laurels. Newer parts would quickly acquire the dense green canopy that does indeed give old Toowoomba its special character. We would no longer have to hang our heads in shame when our friends, relations, and busloads of tourists come to visit and make scathing remarks about our rustic, head-in-the-sand attitude to environmental weeds.
And we could be proud of recognising that the making of “heritage” is an ongoing thing. What more appropriate way of building future heritage, than by restoring our past one, our heritage of “Toowoomba trees”?