Big hollow-bearing trees are the life force of our forests

Big old hollow-bearing trees provide some of the most vital habitat in Victoria’s forests. They tower in the canopy like skyscrapers, alive with Yellow-tailed Black and Gang Gang Cockatoos, Striated and Spotted Pardalotes and Lace Monitors.

They’re home to marsupials like the Feathertailed Glider and critically endangered Leadbeater’s Possum.

As the trees grow, they support native bees and other pollinators, stabilise the forest floor, and circulate nutrients throughout the canopy.

But it can take hundreds of years for hollows to form, especially ones big enough to be home for big animals like Powerful Owls and Greater Gliders.

 

 

In Wellsford State Forest, just outside of Bendigo, a scattering of large old Box and Ironbark trees, known to the locals as The Big Trees, tower over the surrounding forest.

On 2 March 2022, two of The Big Trees were recognised for their scientific and aesthetic values to the landscape, and listed on the National Trust’s Significant Trees Register.

 

But big old trees aren’t getting a chance

How can we keep big, old, hollow-bearing trees in the forest and across the landscape?

Native forest logging, bushfires, land-clearing and inappropriate tree removal are cutting their lives short. When these big trees are destroyed, native wildlife, the climate and the local ecosystem lose.

These trees, and maturing, hollow-bearing trees of the future, need an immediate end to native forest logging. They need a protective buffer around them and their immediate surrounds.

Speed up the native logging transition

There’s no future in native logging. Our government knows it, and are phasing it out by 2030 – but that’s not soon enough.

ADD YOUR VOICE

Speed up the native logging transition

There’s no future in native logging. Our government knows it, and are phasing it out by 2030 – but that’s not soon enough.

ADD YOUR VOICE

There are many more ways to measure a tree

Significant trees in logging coupes left exposed

Up in the mountains, giants can still be found