A HOOP pine tree at Pine Mountain has been identified as a living link to the 1824 expedition of John Oxley and Allan Cunningham.
The tree and its significance was revealed several months ago to property owners who were oblivious to its history.
The 32 hectare (80 acre) block of land belongs to Shane Hancock and his husband Darren.
The couple run a llama farm from it.
“When we bought the property we had no idea of its history and it wasn’t told to us by the family who’d owned the land for generations,” Shane said.
“Earlier this year, Dr Gary Bacon contacted us as the landholders and cited that John Oxley and Allan Cunningham crossed the Brisbane River into the Pine Mountain area and discovered the pine trees.
“[The explorers] were on their trip going west, heading outside of greater Brisbane because they hadn’t developed Brisbane at that stage, it was just a speck on the map.”
Dr Bacon, a noted Queensland forester, told the couple that September 21 was the date Cunningham and Oxley crossed the Brisbane River at their location to collect samples.
“His research identified our tree as being significant,” he said.
“It was a lovely piece of history to understand that it happened here, because according to the [explorers’] diaries and maps, our property is where they crossed the Brisbane river.”
Diaries also reveal an Aboriginal man showed them where best to cross the river, but only showed part of the way because the scrub was far too thick.
“The reason they crossed at our point of the river is Pine Mountain has a peak, making it a good vantage point,” Shane said.
The revelation also had a big ‘wow’ factor.
As a child Shane learned all about Cunningham and his explorations.
“While Cunningham was an influential explorer, he was a botanist first and foremost,” he said.
“His exploration came as a result of his botany work.
“John Oxley was a surveyor for the colony in NSW, he was on the expedition because he’d been told there was a large river that entered the Moreton Bay area.
“They actually overshot that and went into the Pine River catchment, then said ‘no, this isn’t the size we thought would be in this area’, went back and found the opening to the Brisbane River.”
Oxley had been sent by King George IV to explore this part of the continent and Cunningham was assigned to him as the botanist.
Diary entries show the geography of the area described as being “thick and impenetrable”.
“There would have been hoop pines everywhere, these huge ancient trees that had never been touched by man, the indigenous people didn’t harvest trees and cut them down,” he said.
“The [explorers] collected the samples and sent them back to Kew Gardens in England. Those samples are still sitting in the botany museum at Kew, to think they were collected off our farm is quite amazing.”
Diaries used by the men are still in existence today
Dr Bacon has studied them and has copies of entries and maps the men made when coming through the area.
“Our tree is very big, the biggest pine tree on our property and the district,” Shane said.
“It’s reached its full maturity and has a flat top. It’s estimated to be well over 250 years old.
“I never take it for granted, I admire it.
“We’ve had some significant storms come through in the past 10 years we’ve lived on the property, a couple of branches have blown off of it which always makes me upset.
“It’s a big beautiful tree that’s been standing here for so long and holding its own, but at the same time it’s had storm damage, but it hasn’t been compromised.”
Ipswich City Council have commissioned a plaque that will be presented to the men sometime in the near future.
“The anniversary snuck up on everybody without anyone really thinking about what we could possibly do to celebrate it,” Shane said.
“It’s a living link back to our early history.”
