MY TREE Photographic Competition

People were invited to enter photos of trees on the Sunshine Coast Queensland with a short story about the significance of the tree in their lives

This digital booklet shows all the entries and can be used to vote for your favourite in the Sunshine Coast Council’s ‘Living Smart’ People’s Choice Award Details at www.mytreesunshinecoast.com (closes August 12, 2012)

The MY TREE Photographic Competition is an Initiative of:

My Tree Sponsors:

Sarah Pye – Voting No 1

Category: My Tree - Adult

Location: Buderim Maple down under The audacity of this tree delights me. It’s not particularly spectacular, but it is completely out of place.

When the cold southern breeze hits the coast, and the native eucalypts around it produce masses of honey-filled flowers, this northern hemisphere native dances to a different drummer, indicating the seasons as precisely as a timepiece as I walk the dog each day.

Bright green buds erupt from its bare branches in spring like toddlers taking their first steps. They mature into succulent green flags, tossed by the wind and producing oxygen and sap like a man in his working prime.

Then in autumn they mature like a good wine, with each leaf taking on a personality of its own. Finally, as I rug up in my winter coat, the maple sheds its own and the satisfying crunch of withered leaves indicates a life well lived.

I learn a lot from this tree for I too don’t quite fit. Each year it grows a smidge stronger and gives me the confidence to follow my own path.

Adrianna Watson – Voting No. 2

Category: My Tree - Adult

Location: Mountain Creek The significance of this tree to me is in its future, not in its past. It belongs to my two year old daughter (Gabriela) and was only gifted to her moments before the photo was taken by the Sunshine Coast Council at the World Environment Day Festival.

A similar tree was also given to my other four year old daughter Julia.

What a wonderful day out for two little girls! Lessons are best learnt in fun and a caring environment and they were in abundance at the festival. The girls learnt about the symbiotic relationship between plants and animals and that we all have a responsibility to care for the environment. Gabi chose a plant that would attract more birds to the garden, while Juba went for one to attract her precious butterflies.

The tree in this photo is rich in symbolism of life to its new “owner” (guardian to be more accurate). The girls will care for these trees themselves and learn the lessons of nurturing them and the responsibility we all have to care for the environment. Every time a songbird sings or a butterfly flutters by, they will learn with joy.

Ana Foix – Voting No. 3

Category: My Tree - Adult

Location: Pomona This tree is important to me because I see it when I am with my friend, Montserrat. I met Montserrat when I first moved to Australia 12 years ago.

We both come from Catalonia (a region in Spain) and we both speak Catalan language.

This tree has heard our stories, has seen us cry and laugh.

When we meet it is magical and comforting. This tree has witnessed how our friendship has grown over the years‌.

This tree is important to me because when I see it I am with my friend, Montserrat.

Ann Ross – Voting No. 4

Category: My Tree - Adult

Location: Beerburrum The Beerburrum community remains proud and respectful of their ANZAC memorial trees which were planted in 1920. They are illustrated in many unique stories and events which have not only shaped our community but that of our nation.

These magnificent weeping figs were planted alongside camphour laurels by children of the fledgling Beerburrum Soldier Settlement and have grown into a magnificent canopy which today provides a peaceful retreat and place of reflection.

Unquestionably they are united as one, by what they represent. These trees are the only memorial in Queensland that was initiated by returned servicemen of a soldier settlement in honour of their fallen comrades; and not dedicated to a particular individual as was the trend of that day.

Today they remain as a poignant reminder of the first Beerburrum community, and the early accomplishments residents undertook. The trees stand not only as a reminder of sacrifice, but also as evidence of what a community can achieve when it works together and plans for its future.

They are gone, they are dead, but the trees will remain

Anne Laffer - Voting No. 5

Category: My Tree – Adult

Location: Tanawha

This tree is in the Maroochy Botanical Gardens, I don’t know what type of tree it is but I just love the trunk with its variants of colour and texture.

Friends of Bankfoot House – Voting No. 6

Category: My Tree - Adult

Location: Glasshouse Mountains Within the grounds of Bankfoot House grows a very old fig tree that is currently cared for by the Friends of Bankfoot House, in conjunction with Sunshine Coast Council.

The tree is over 120 years old, and the ‘Friends’ have recorded many anecdotes from family descendants indicating the tree was significant to the fabric of everyday life of residents of Bankfoot House.

One story relates to Jack and Mary Ferris, who were the last occupants of Bankfoot House. Jack apparently stayed at Bankfoot House as a seven year old when he and Mary climbed the fig and attached the elkhorn that is still growing there today. Jack and Mary eventually married in 1925.

Today not only elkhorns but many species of plants take refuge within the fig’s creviced trunk and enormous outstretched canopy.

Since 2006 the Friends, particularly volunteer Robyn, have carefully tended the fig and, through her efforts, a delicate carpet of maidenhair fern is once again encompassing the spaces between the exposed roots and hollows.

The fig is now in decline and perhaps the end of its life imminent, but with continued care it is hoped it will remain a part of Bankfoot House for several years yet.

Chris Hardwick - Voting No. 7

Category: My Tree Adult

Location: Pomona Relentlessly they hacked their way through my heart; ‘timber, timber we need more timber’ was the insistent cry. The loggers’ track that winds its way through Tuchekoi Forest Reserve destroyed native habitat and opened up the forest for easy access to timber.

This image is a tribute to a tree that would have stood in all of its majesty where now the dirt track named Kelleher’s Road is situated.

Christian Uhrig – Voting No. 8

Category: My Tree - Adult

Location: Cooroy Since the End of 2008, I went through a very difficult time in my life with relationship and economical challenges. I had to leave the Sunshine Coast to work all over Australia.

In March 2012 I finally returned to the Sunshine Coast and found a fantastic new home on the hill in the Cooroy Hinterland. This magic Jacaranda tree watches over the property and we have breathtaking sunsets. So, now, finally I have a home again.

After living with foreigners and in a camper van for part of the time this new home feels like heaven.

This magic tree spans over the veranda and provides shade on warm afternoons – but more than anything else it is a protector of our home.

I hope I never have to leave again.

Debbie Strachan – Voting No. 9

Category: My Tree - Adult

Location: Eumundi Looking for a shady spot to rest on a hot and sunny day last summer I found this special tree. I felt so cool and refreshed under this tree and very calm and relaxed as I watched her graceful and serene movements in the breeze. It reminded me of a ballerina.

Her trunk is a beautiful blend of mottled cream and grey, showing its inherited botanical artwork with its own unique pattern. The leaves a vibrant green, willowy, fine and subtle. Over time, the tree looked frail almost as though she may die.

No! I thought, she won’t die, she is just going through a period of change.

Well my tree is still alive and well today, giving peace and calm to anyone who takes time to indulge in her graceful dance as the breeze tickles her branches.

My tree gives me hope…

Helen Tetis – Voting No. 10

Category: My Tree - Adult

Location: Golden Beach My sons were born on the Sunshine Coast, they were very active climbers for all their youthful years (and not so youthful!) Everywhere we would venture for picnics or adventures there had to be trees and the trees were rated “Oh, this is a good one to climb!”

This tree at the Sea Cadet Park became their favourite and we would walk from their Grandparents’ home down to the foreshore at Golden Beach and the boys would run ahead and hide in the foliage.

Then, would come the games of “Where are the boys?” or “Hide and Seek” amongst the branches.

Even though the boys have now grown up we still picnic in this area when they are home, or just when we walk along the great path in this area, the boys comment on their tree climbing days and the fun they had with their Grandpa holding their hand as they wanted to go higher and higher!

We have many fond memories of Grandpa and our tree climbing outings and wish the years had not passed as quickly as they have.

Herbert Fenn – Voting No. 11 My Tree - Adult

Category:

Location: CooIoolabin It’s hard to photograph an old red cedar tree, It stimulates so much growth around it that it’s hard to see, But with the drop of leaves, mass of twisted limbs we see, The Mother standing above her progeny.

When the axes came they let her be, Not much money in a crooked tree.

Now fern and moss, vine and fig, Lilli-pilli, celery wood growing big On the rich humus beneath her boughs, An explosion of life that this tree allows, And makes me wonder at what the forest was before, When red cedars dotted the forest floor…..

This tree stands on my property at Cooloolabin and is said to be one of the only two red cedars left by the loggers. It is a constant inspiration to my bush regeneration efforts.

Dianne Thistlethwait – Voting No. 12

Category: My Tree - Adult

Location: Bli Bli I am the custodian of a giant fig tree, having purchased five acres of land on Stoney Wharf Road, Bli Bli in 2003. My tree is very, very old and has been recorded on the original maps of Petrie.

Our road was the original Cobb & Co. and all of the mail and food was delivered from it, to Maroochydore and Coolum by boat.

The coachman would load the boats then come up the hill to have a cup of tea and rest under the tree.

My Watkins fig is full of life and I love it.

Ian & Cherie Ferguson - Voting No. 13

Category: My Tree - Adult

Location: Lake Cootharaba When we camp at Elanda Point we love to visit this gnarly tree. My grandchildren call it “the witchy tree”: like something out of Grimm’s Fairy Tales, it could tell a tale or two.

At Mill Point, on the edge of the western shore of Lake Cootharaba, maybe it was a sapling when the Luya and Co. timber mill was established in the 1860s with 200 workers. The tree would have grown as the township of Elanda Plains evolved, seeing the joys and sorrows experienced by any community. Perhaps it witnessed the terrible boiler explosion in 1973, which resulted in the deaths of five men.

Now it has weekend walkers to watch as they explore the few remnants of the town, and camping canoeists as they paddle past the decaying timbers of the dock where logs were once loaded.

The mill closed down in 1892 – not many trees left by then, but the forest grew back and this tree still stands, toes relentlessly encaging plumbing pipes from the past (you need to look closely around centre base ).

Jack Tindall – Voting No. 14

Category: My Tree - Adult

Location : Point Cartwright I often walk around the lighthouse at Pt Cartwright late in the afternoon; just on sunset the colours are amazing.

The sky glows yellow, orange, red, pink and purple. Trying to capture those last moments of everyday should be easy, but instead I find the pictures I take never match exactly what I see.

Walking down from the lighthouse towards the breakwater I come across this HEART Tree which is unlike any other around it. Right in the fork of the tree is a red shaped heart a gentle reminder to me of the importance of living from your heart.

At sunset, the tree is thrown into silhouette against a very bright colourful backdrop and the features of the tree become hidden. However, in this photograph, I make the tree glow, illuminating its heart and allowing it to shine for us all to see.

Janie Ferguson – Voting No. 15

Category: My Tree - Adult

Location: Eumundi I love the shape of this beautiful old mango tree, that stands in pride of place in my garden.

It was the home and shelter to kangaroos before the garden was established.

Now fenced off to protect it from cows and horses.

Home for possums, currawongs, butcher birds, rosellas.

Also a wonderful climbing tree for my grandchildren. A very special tree admired for its beautiful shape.

This tree has stood for a long time, I hope it will be there for many years to come.

Jeanette Morrison – Voting No. 16

Category: My Tree - Adult

Location: Nambour Of course, trees are respected because they grow to massive heights, but trees must not be esteemed only for their size. My tree is a small tree, a bonsai, and I value it as much as I would a forest giant.

I call my tree, my friendship tree, because it was given to me by a dear friend. Her hands encircle it with love.

My tree won’t ever grow to be a massive specimen. Its branches won’t soar upward to the sky. Its roots will not extend deep down into fertile soil. What my tree lacks in physical stature, however, will be balanced by what it represents.

When I give my tree nourishment, I will remember companionships need also to be nurtured. The friendship I have with my friend will be fertilized when meals are shared with easy conversation and laughter.

My tree will need liquid to survive, and I will never forget our friendship will not wither if it is watered with down-to-earth concern for each other, anticipation of when the other needs encouragement, an ear just for listening or a comfortable silence to share.

My friendship tree is significant because it teaches me how to be a good friend.

Joan Carter – Voting No. 17

Category: My Tree - Adult

Location: Buderim Considering my limited viewpoints, the entirety of my Camphor Laurel tree was just too big to fit into a photograph. Living in my garden, it shields my home from the hot westerly sun. My “magic mushrooms” keep it company, along with a gnome, hiding in its trunks.

From my balcony I see so much bird life amongst its branches. Queensland Umbrella Trees are interwoven with the Camphor Laurel and as their flowers develop we are inundated with beautifully colourful lorikeets, together with blue and red eyed honey eaters feasting on its flowers.

Kookaburras often perch in the Camphor Laurel branches. Other birds, such as crows, butcher birds, and currawongs, like to feed on its berries. Sometimes a family of frogmouthed owls will sit, undetected, for days.

At night, the possums like to show off their acrobatics in the tree, but if they are still there at daybreak, the birds chase them away. One day I spotted a beautiful koel in the tree, and a currawong giving it a hard time.

After the koel retaliated, the currawong took off and returned with his “mates”, and about a dozen currawongs made sure the koel moved on: out of their tree!

Kim Maxwell – Voting No. 18

Category: My Tree - Adult

Location: Caloundra I had lived in country NSW all my life. When I was 27 we came to the Sunshine Coast for a three day holiday and were amazed by the beauty and opportunities here.

We had a two year old beautiful boy and suddenly great opportunities for a great future for him were everywhere, and this was all we needed to make the massive decision to sell our house, move states and start new jobs and a whole new life.

We moved to Caloundra a year later, while pregnant with our beautiful daughter. We fell in love with this place and one of the things I loved most was the green, green trees, green grass, everything!

When our daughter was born I planted this lilly pilly as it symbolised the new, the new start my family was making.

It was only tiny but is now big, strong and healthy, just like my beautiful kids and I love that I get to see my kids and my tree every day!

Kylie Sadler – Voting No. 19

Category: My Tree - Adult

Location: Sunshine Beach It was a cool May morning in 2011. I ventured down to Sunshine Beach to watch the sunrise, with child.

Before my feet hit the sand I spotted what could only be described as the love tree. Against the dawn, its two stunted branches and long folding leaves formed a perfect heart – much like my daughter’s perfect little heart which was beating strong inside me.

Time has passed since I captured this wondrous moment, but soon I plan to take my daughter on an early morning adventure to find that special love tree beside the beach.

Though I am sure it will look different by now, hopefully it is even more beautiful, taller and stronger – much like my daughter who has since learnt to smile, laugh, crawl, stand and walk.

A rare planetary alignment was visible in the sky above the love tree that particular morning – a sky show featuring Jupiter, Mars, Mercury and Venus. When these four planets align again in 2056, I hope our coastline is still scattered with such beautiful trees awaiting each rising sun. I hope that families still make the time to step out and enjoy nature in all...

Kassandra Abriola – Voting No. 20

Category: My Tree - Adult

Location: Maleny This tree located on the windy trail of the Maleny walk is a gorgeous full leafed tree. Every time I pass this huge amazing tree it gives of a feeling of peace and serenity. Just by absorbing the tree’s energies I get brought back to nature and feel grounded. If you have ever watched the movie Avatar it resembles that beautiful tree that brings meaning into your life, which I like to call the "momma tree".

Whatever is going on in life big or small disappears if only few a moments. Instantly I feel relief looking over its body with its thick trucks entangling each other and the fern infusing life with it.

You know when you hear a great song, or watch a beautiful movie, that’s how I feel when passing this remarkable tree, so whenever possible I make the drive in that direction just so I can soak up the spirit the tree gives off to me.

Jemma Darlington – Voting No. 21

Category: My Tree - Adult

Location: Boreen Point My tree is an old Melaleuca quinquenervia (tea-tree or paperbark) on the shore of Lake Cootharaba, at a location north of Boreen Point. The tree is strong considering its position bent over the lake edge, being in full flower, but is showing signs of age through the beginnings of ant residencies.

Upon meeting this goddess of a tree, I climbed carefully up her trunk and sat on her horizontal branches. Feeling connected to the Mother Earth was (oddly enough) stronger with my feet off the ground, her kinship vibrations transferring to me now through where my body touched the tree, causing my heart to swell with joy.

The afternoon air was sweet with the smell of tea-tree blossom. I could see clearly in the north the prominent figures of Mill Point and, far off in the distance, the Cooloola Sandpatch.

The next week I photographed her, taking to the ankle deep water below to take this shot up and out through her branches, with little water-dwelling critters nibbling at my toes beneath the murky surface. Rain clouds cast a grey mist over Cooloola in the distance and the crescent moon silently glowed in the crisp late autumn sky.

Lidia Davidovics - Voting No. 22

Category: My Tree - Adult

Location: Noosa When I first saw this tree, with the little picnic table tucked in underneath it; I knew I’d found the perfect spot! In Noosa Woods with a few painting projects, I was soon drawn into my work and my thoughts as the warm sun, gentle breeze, and singing birds soothed me.

A loud THWACK! Near my head snapped me out of my reverie as a frisbee toss veered slightly off-course and crashed off the tree next to me. Heart racing, my head snapped around to a young man hurrying over, asking was I okay, and apologizing for his mate’s unfortunate aim! I stammered I was fine; thanks to “my” guardian tree!

After nearly 13 years away, much has changed; people and places I’d known: gone. In Noosa Woods, the picnic table where I’d sat is gone, but my guardian remains; a personal connection to the past, but also, with history of the area.

I wonder how many more stories the old sentinel must hold; children clambering among its branches, picnics within its sheltering shade, countless generations of birds amid its leaves; first-time fledglings.

I hope “the sentinel” will keep guard for years to come; collecting stories, memories, time.

Lesley Christian – Voting No. 23

Category: My Tree - Adult

Location: Noosa Botanic Gardens - Lake MacDonald The African Sausage Tree (Kingelia Africanus) has unusually shaped fruit that can grow up to 80cm long and weigh up to 7kg. It looks a little like a butternut pumpkin! It’s a common tree throughout tropical parts of Africa.

Studies have shown that the fruit can kill melanoma cancer cells and within Africa it’s believed to be a cure for rheumatism, snake bite, syphilis and even evil spirits! Here in this little Queensland community it has a very different use!

It has also been affectionately renamed by our family as ‘the doggy football tree’! As fruit discarded by this tree is used to play roll, throw, catch and retrieve by my faithful friend Nutnut!

We have hours of endless fun playing these games. As soon as we get to the garden, it’s the first location he wants to head!

If fruit cannot be found on the ground Nutnut has been known to help himself to a much needed toy that is at jumping height! I wonder if Bob Bickley (who chose the tree as he was Noosa Parks Curator at the time) would have had any notion that he was planting a tree that was to provide an endless supply of bio-degradable rugby balls!

Julie Emery – Voting No. 24

Category: My Tree - Adult

Location: Bli Bli Each year the small lake opposite the sports grounds at Mac Martin Park in Lefoes Road Bli Bli plays host to hundreds of breeding cattle egret. At times the trees are literally filled with pairs and their offspring, often spilling out over the surrounding fields and lake.

Imagine my delight to return home one afternoon to find this tree transformed into what I now and forever call the BIRD TREE. I quickly drove home, collected my camera and commenced a slow stalk so as not to startle the amazing new foliage that was adorning the tree.

The egret effect came alive as the birds alighted into the afternoon sky. Long may they breed and there be trees to host them, both their nests and as roosts.

Mel Smith – Voting No. 25

Category: My Tree - Adult

Location: Noosaville Epiphantree I wandered, mind melancholy bent, On love’s encounter missed, O’er whelmed by tiredness from day’s activity.

Whence did sunrise, red-gold fingers steal Through shadowed trunks and brightening leaves, To paint in highlight reds for me This glorious being, we call a tree.

Before me, it stood, strong, calm & proud.

Gold-red ‘twas girt, Anchored, earthed and sky entwined Sustained by both thereof, for decades, it hath stood, A peaceful being of leaf and wood, and gracious spirit did it exude.

Shade, shelter, food does it afford To denizens of park and woods, Harried so, by daily need, into restless activity E’en so as we, do seek Our lives to fill with tasks and deeds, E’ere tiredness our minds doth fill, Eschewing love’s community, to leave An absence, sadness tinged, a touch aggrieved, At love’s missed intimacy.

And as I stood about this being, Its spirit deep within me reached And gifted vision for my eyes to see, My heart to feel, Love’s bond resides unto infinity, Dependent not on physicality.

And peace within me grew and reached Into the sky, past stars, till heaven breached, And knowing, blessed would’st I be Should I ne’er forget the tree in me

Mia Hacken – Voting No. 26

Category: My Tree - Adult

Location: Kin Kin This tree is my communication tree. It is the magical mobile telephone reception spot at the Kin Kin State School. It was at this tree my students and I, while sharing a Moran Contemporary Prize Photography session, really got to see angles in nature. Being able to talk maths, nature and the digital photography medium in the great outdoors was just great. I am currently bringing up my baby and not working at school, this is one of many warm memories of my teaching in Kin Kin School.

Being able to talk to people on my phone was important and this little warm, sunny magic spot meant I was in touch with loved ones during hard times and good times. I strongly believe that taking the classroom outside to make the most of learning really allows children to shine and puts a smile on their face. This tree reminds me of all the happy smiles, laughs and learning that happens at school.

Monika Sprott - Voting No. 27

Category: My Tree - Adult

Location: Glen View Trees live between the terrestrial planes, roots descend as branches stretch, migrating through the earth and defying gravity, trees are totems of life and some wackos get very attached to their trees.

I am one such wacko as I've always been found up high in the branches listening to the choir of avians accompanied by the ensemble of chiming leaves in the breeze. Complacent with the lack of conflicting emotion within canopy, time renders minimal relevance up here, something my Grandfather knew all too well.

My Grandfather instilled many lessons to me beyond the short years I knew him, but one holds exact relevance to me. When I was born my grandfather planted a Melaleuca as a living totem.

He felt that the tree was the physical manifestation of a conscious being, growing, responding to stimuli and branching when needed, my grandfather planted a tree to grow with me, as I grow smarter my tree grows taller and thicker, and as I grow older my trees roots grow further strengthening my connection to my grandfather all the way.

Nambour Museum – Voting No. 28

Category: My Tree - Adult

Location: Nambour I could not have chosen a better place to be planted in the 1930s, and what interesting neighbours I have had. I started my life, growing on the Department of Agriculture and Stock property. What a fortunate start for an avocado tree, because the staff knew how to nurture me. At 80-years-old, I am growing strong and continue to provide bounteous yearly harvests. While I have remained, I cannot say the same for my neighbours.

The Ag and Stock department has gone and so have other subsequent government departments.

Across the fence, my most impressive neighbour was the Nambour Sugar Mill. I witnessed its closure in the early 2000s. I loved seeing the cane trains busily shuffling in the yards bringing in the cut cane, then watching more activity as the mill processed the cane into sugar.

When it closed, I was glad some mill equipment and buildings came over the fence to the Nambour Museum, my custodians. How much fun I have when museum activities occur and people sit under my branches talking about old times.

The stories I could tell them. My happy closing story is I can see activities again over the fence and my new neighbours will be selling sugar.

Raoul Slater – Voting No. 29

Category: My Tree - Adult

Location: Cooroy I was commissioned by the Sunshine Coast Council to photograph some of the Christmas decorations that they had set up in various trees about the Coast.

By far the most spectacular of these was a hoop pine in Cooroy on the roundabout outside the RSL. There was enough wattage in the decorations to highlight the perfect Christmas tree form of the hoop pine.

It was lightly drizzling on the night I visited so that the reflections on the bitumen seemed double the tree’s size. I decided to celebrate the season by using a torch to paint my own version of a Christmas tree in front of the hoop.

At other times of year this tree, despite its size, goes largely unnoticed, or is even cursed as it blocks the view of oncoming traffic, but during Christmas it is the Sunshine Coast’s most spectacular tree.

Sabine Nogly – Voting No. 30

Category: My Tree - Adult

Location: Boreen Point Joining the local camera club many years ago our first outing was Boreen Point photographing trees in the early morning.

It was the start of not just learning about photography but learning about nature, my local area, but also making friends for the past 15 years and being part of the community.

Sandy Lynn – Voting No. 31

Category: My Tree - Adult

Location: Marcus Beach The coast is such a social place, where community matters. It is one of the reasons I choose to be here on the Sunshine Coast. So it is seems appropriate to have a tree that is social. There is never just one Swamp Paper Bark.

This lovely tree, and its friends have been paddling in a billabong, let from the rain, eight weeks ago. I cannot tell where one finishes and the next one starts. Their love of water reflects mine.

I am attracted to the peace they offer to anyone who takes the time to share their surrounds. Here they stay only meters from the surf and sand offering quiet and calm while the waves crash nearby. They give balance and I am grateful.

Known by so many names: Melaleuca quinquenervia – Swamp Paperbark, Paper-barked Teatree, Broad-leaved Teatree, Paperbark, Five-veined Paperbark – by any name you are my Favourite.

Tania Broadbent – Voting No. 32

Category: My Tree - Adult

Location: Cooran This tree stands tall and proud at the top of Tableland mountain at James McKane Lookout in Cooran.

She has views that stretch from the sand blows of Cooloola National Park to the distant gleam of the buildings of Maroochydore. This tree has been witness to my engagement when my husband proposed to me on a moonlit night.

She has overlooked my wedding ceremony and shared glasses of bubbly with our wedding guests.

She has held my children in her arms while they pretended she was a shop or restaurant, and that her leaves and twigs were food for sale.

Our family has sat underneath her boughs and reflected on the beauty of a sunset. She has seen tears but more importantly so much laughter.

We see her most days, when all or some of our family share a walk with our dog. We sit together in a moment of peaceful harmony, and wonder at the beautiful place where we live.

Sharmy Cavander – Voting No. 33

Category: My Tree - Adult

Location: Cooran The Gorgeous Guava I’ve been standing sentinel, snaking sinuously toward the light beside this cottage since it was first built some 25 years ago. Life has been its ever challenging self for my family, however these are people who are sustained by the expansive and ever changing sub-tropical garden I watch over.

Through the disappointments and upheavals of life and death, they have turned to me for support, drawing resilience from me.

And now we have peals of chubby, childish laughter - we have a baby born at home beneath my boughs and the circle of life is complete. This little adventurer mines the garden seeking magic, reveling in the latest wriggling discovery, covering himself with leaves, sifting through the soil.

It is his window over which I stand sentinel, shading it in the summer, keeping winter winds at bay, and most of all, fostering his dreams and fanning his passions.

Terri-Maree Whitfield – Voting No. 34

Category: My Tree - Adult

Location: Buderim The weeping figs in Wirreanda Park in Buderim created a magical environment for me as a little girl.

I loved the stories my mum would tell me when we played in the park, imagining all the sights and sounds those trees would have encountered.

I loved to climb their enormous branches, looking for fairies or goblins and compete with my brother as to who could climb the highest.

The significance for me of this photo is that my mum now takes my little girl to this very park and we get to experience the magic of weeping figs all over again...

Wendy Wheeler – Voting No. 35

Category: My Tree - Adult

Location: Kings Beach DAY 1: Flights booked, bags packed, removalist gone. Tomorrow we leave for good.

DAY 2: Just left the airport, my two beautiful boys and I are on the bus heading to our new home in QLD. I am scared, anxious, excited, I can hardly contain myself. My brother is picking us up; when we arrive I burst into tears.

DAY 3: Feeling overwhelmed, sleeping in.

DAY 4: Furniture arrives; turning the house into our home.

DAY 5: Discovering Golden Beach, a tree has caught our eye. We have never seen a tree like this before, it has weird roots that make my boys laugh hysterically, I love it! I must find out what it is.

NEXT DAY: The Pandanus!

5 YEARS LATER: Walking along Kings Beach, I take a deep breath of fresh air; I look at the ocean, the sky, the Pandanus trees. They make me think back to the excitement I felt when I first arrived here, how it made my boys laugh at a time of significant change in their lives. How amazing! A tree has marked the most wonderful, significant change in my life too and will forever remind me of it!

Arkin Mackay – Voting No. 36

Category - My Native Tree

I first met this tree in 2009, during the campaign to stop the building of Traveston Crossing Dam. I was touring the Mary Valley seeking photographic evidence of at least thirty ancient and significant fig trees that had been suspiciously left off environmental vegetation mapping.

The trees were all within the proposed inundation zone of the dam, and would have drowned if the dam had gone ahead... a loss that would have been much more significant than 'just another tree'.

Older than European settlement in Australia, they would have sheltered Aboriginal tribes, as well as provided homes and a food source for many generations of possums, birds and other creatures.

They still provide vital habitat for the native wildlife that suffer encroaching urban settlement and reductions in accessible habitat areas.

Against substantial odds, the dam was stopped, and these magnificent trees live on! Many of them are visible towering above the tree line as you drive through the valley or canoe down the Mary River. This particular tree, although not the biggest, felt like the oldest to me. Perhaps it had something to do with the worn and gnarled buttresses that were reminiscent of old bones.

Brian Hettrick – Voting No. 37

Category: My Native Tree

Location: Nambour This giant centurion Banyan sits next to busy Perwillowen Road in Burnside Nambour, welcoming and fare welling thousands of parents and students whom have attended Saint John’s College since its beginning.

Passing by, I can hear the silent invitation and acknowledge its living spirit.

Early settlers and cane-cutters probably took shelter in the shade of this giant Ficus Microcarpa or Curtain Fig also known as the Chinese Banyan because of its massive spreading branches and many supporting trunks.

Those who take the time to stop and discover are overcome by the size and presence of this giant and rewarded with a spiritual experience that only a living organism of this size can provide.

This “Invisible Giant” has very little documented history and it can only be assumed it naturally took root where it grows or was planted intentionally, however no proof exists for introduced planting.

With its 20 metre base and 40 metre spreading crown, standing in a carpet of Morning Glory it still awaits the recognition it deserves as a rare and significant tree in the history of the Sunshine Coast.

Jennifer Lord - Voting No. 38

Category: My Native Tree

Location: Golden Beach Condemned to death My tree in Golden Beach looks like any other ordinary tree yet it is not. It is nearly as magnificent as the one in Hobart I witnessed destroyed piece by piece and then burnt. Powerless my soul saddened.

Tragically my tree, here is also set to die – to be bulldozed and pulverised in favour of a road that need not be built. With its death will go not only my vision for a most wonderful nature reserve and wetlands for Golden Beach but the life it guards within.

My vision was inspired by the sight of a most captivating bird with its stillness and captivating stare, surveying its surrounds, guarding the massive nest of twigs precariously lodged tens of metres high up, guarding its mate and chicks.

Its tree is my tree – its home tree. My tree is a breeding tree for the magnificent whistling kite – the powerful birds of the Pumerstone Passage – the ones who mesmerise us as they soar above the water in search of their meal; the ones we and our authorities are so proud to boast about.

I’ve been informed that the authorities have said that the whistling kites will just have to find another tree! Shame!

Lorraine Bird – Voting No. 39

Category: My Native Tree

Location: Mill Point My favourite tree is the tea tree barked “Melaleuca” which, in the past, has been cited as plentiful in our precious and fragile Sunshine Coastal and Wetland regions. Today, with the push for land for development, these stands and forests of “Melaleuca” are slowly disappearing; being replaced by both native and exotic species that don’t invade underground pipes.

Because of this, my depiction is significant as it shows the “Melaleuca’s” extensive spreading and invasive root system holding together the sand and soil within and along the margins of swamps and waterways; saving the wetlands and shorelines from invading flood and tidal waters, plus wind and wave interference.

Behind this “Melaleuca” are the remains of “Mill Point” township; a thriving late 19th Century sawmill with established school, shops and homes; now part of a National Park, conserved and maintained for future generations.

My “Melaleuca”, hopefully, will continue to withstand the natural onslaught of climatic conditions, hold onto the precious sand and soils of “Mill Pt.”, provide shade for visitors to this conservation site and frame the evolving sand dunes between Teewah Beach, the Noosa River and its Lakes. Wow! What a tree!

Lynette Hill – Voting No. 40

Category: My Native Tree

Location: North Maleny This is a beautiful gum tree in Maleny where I live. I took this photo last year when a beautiful double rainbow appeared. The tree is majestic; it stands proudly on a hill.

It is visited by kookaburras, cockatoos, parrots and other birds. It is home to lizards, other reptiles and insects.

It’s a gum that attracts koalas so I’m hoping that one day they will make this tree their home.

Geoff Powell – Voting No. 41

Category: My Native Tree

Location: Boreen Point This tree, which I name The Sentinel, sits alone on the foreshore of Lake Cootharaba at Boreen Point, in front of the Council Campsite. We have had a number of wonderful family holidays at this awesome camp site, and to me, this tree has come to represent a symbol of guardianship of the area. It sits alone at the water’s edge, the only tree that has survived right by the lake.

Its age and condition suggests that it’s been there a very long time, and that despite its precarious position, it’s a real survivor. For me then, it represents strength and safety, a symbol of surety that makes the campground welcoming and inviting year after year.

At night, sitting on the beach under the tree, with the cosmos spread out above, and the glow from Noosa safely over the horizon, I have experienced a sense of peace and contentment that I will never forget.

The tree’s fragile existence combined with its stubborn persistence is a reminder to me that life is indeed both beautiful and fragile, and that the only choice we have is to persevere and enjoy. I always leave the campsite refreshed by the symbolism of that tree…

Rosalind Bridger – Voting No. 42

Category: My Native Tree

Location: Peachester This gum tree must be nearly 100 years old, we think it was used as a marker many years ago when they carried out logging in this area.

The trunk has a circumference of nearly seven and a half metres which means it would take 5 men holding hands to reach all around the trunk of the tree.

The lower branch to the right of the photo measures 17 meters long and is growing parallel to the ground and at its tip is one meter off the ground and is still growing.

We think this tree should be protected and have a plaque on it so it is never cut down.

Peta Hempsall – Voting No. 43

Category: My Native Tree

Location: Noosa River Noosaville To some people Mangroves are an ugly plant, with no apparent beautiful features, but I find Mangroves a unique and beautiful plant which provides both food and protection to native animals, and a defense against erosion for our riverbanks and coastlines‌ and this one photographed is one of the last remaining mangroves in that part of the Noosa River

Rosalyn Kuss – Voting No. 44

Category: My Native Tree

Location: Wurtulla My tree is a coastal icon, the Tuckeroo (cupaniopsis anacardioides). I can only guess when she germinated and began to grow in the Wallum country that has become Wurtulla. At the end of 1978 she stood at the very rear of the land we purchased, adjoining the Kathleen McArthur Environmental Park.

She has now more than trebled in size, is more than 10 metres tall and has a trunk girth of 1900cm. I gaze out the windows directly into her branches to see my tree welcome countless birdlife throughout the seasons.

Many varieties of Honey Eaters, Wattlebirds and Friarbirds all drink the nectar of her prolific though insignificant blossoms; the bright orange berries that follow her juicy yellow fruits are both a feast for the Figbirds. She opens her arms to Spangled Drongos and Common Koels who call her welcoming foliage ‘home’ on their extended annual visits; Butcher birds sing melodiously from her branches, and occasionally flitting Silver Eyes can be seen cleaning her leaves of tiny spiders.

My tree has sustained many lives in the local ecological system and has given me much pleasure for more than 33 years. She is a beautiful part of my life.

Enoch O’Sullivan – Voting No. 45

Category: My Native Tree

Location: Witta We have just moved to a new house. I was playing on the verandah and I saw a bunch of ducks fly into this massive tree. It was one of the most old, most beautiful eucalyptus trees I had seen in a long time.

We will be renting for about ten years and this tree will be in our yard. It is a home for many creatures, with a giant hole at the bottom and hollow all the way up to the top. A tunnel leads down from the hole.

It’s near to a pond I love to swim in and it gives shade. Ducks swim here too and then fly to the tree to look out.

Marjorie Webber – Voting No. 46

Category: My Native Tree

Location: Pumistone Passage My weather-beaten, sparse of leaf and gnarled Melaleuca is to be found in front of our house on the Pumicestone Passage.

Every morning whilst eating breakfast I view this tree which has stood the ravages of time when many younger trees close by have succumbed to the storms and gale force winds common to the waterfront.

In this tree I see the Whistling Kite and Osprey perch eating fish caught in the Passage. I see the Lorikeets in the Spring squabbling over the many hollows available for nesting. Later on Common Mynahs come, also to vie for hollows. Honeyeaters and bees come in the flowering season. Little Fairy Martins that nest under the bridge rest on the branches for a break during a busy morning collecting insects on the wing. And dogs find the base a place of interest on their daily walks on the esplanade.

Photography is my hobby and this tree is a perfect foreground for stunning sunset shots over the bridge and passage.

This is a very old tree with a hollow base. I wonder how long it has been standing and I wonder how much longer it will remain for me to enjoy.

Amber Grant – Voting No. 47

Category: MY Tree - Child

Location: Buderim My tree to me shows that nature is fighting back from human development. I just love this tree because it shows me, as a person, what I can accomplish many things I put my mind to.

I am a tree lover and I love to think about trees, and whenever I go past this one I think of its past.

Was it planted by an old man back in the first world war, or was it planted to give hope or sadness, or was it just there, there before anyone lived there? In peace, the tree sits there every day and when I go past it, it smiles at me. It even sparkles just a little bit!

When I first saw it, it was love at first sight. Now every day I go past it, I grow more attached to it. It’s a magnificent tree with its beautiful structure. It feels like it is holding back some mystery of its past and I need to find out.

Georgia Schumann – Voting No. 48

Category: My Tree, Child

Location: Boreen Point My favourite tree is at the far end of Dunn’s Beach, on Lake Cootharaba, at Boreen Point. I am so lucky because I live only a few minutes walk from this tree.

I really love this tree because it makes me feel happy and grateful. It makes me feel like giving and loving because I always put a treasure in the tree on my beach walk there. That’s why I call it Treasure Tree! It also makes me feel very safe. When I sit in this tree, I feel like it’s holding me in the palm of its hand.

I love Treasure Tree. I feel spiritual when I am in this tree and the tree makes me feel MAGICAL! Every time my Mum, Dad and me go for our family walk, we always end up at Treasure Tree.

Sometimes we call it Magic Tree, sometimes we also call it Angel Tree. This is because I love to talk to my Angels and one day on our walk there, an angel ornament was actually hanging in the tree. Amazing hey? I was so excited.

As soon as I see my favourite tree, I feel peaceful and all my worries leave me.

Isabella McCoombes – Voting No. 49

Category: My Tree - Child

Location: Warana Beach This pandanus grows near Nan and Grandad’s house. I have played under the beautiful leaves all my life.

I wanted to grow a pandanus, so I was very excited when Grandad told me he’d collected some seeds. He made sure he left plenty of fruit for animals and some that will grow into more pandanus trees.

On Saturday I prepared a pot. On Sunday Grandad and I chose one to plant. I dug the hole while Grandad held the seed. He gently placed it in the dirt while I filled the watering can. I watered the seed and I will water it every day.

Though it may only be small now, I hope one day the seed Grandad and I planted will grow into a tree as big as the one in my photo.

The tree will always remind me of the time that Grandad and I spend together.

Oh, and I promise I didn’t scratch the heart in the tree. I guess I’m not the only one who loves this pandanus!

Judah O’Sullivan – Voting No. 50

Category: My Tree - Child

Location: Witta I like this tree because it has good things to play with under it.

It has some old stumps nearby that I use as aeroplanes especially when my cousins come to visit.

It has good climbing rocks. I made a seat in the tree that I climb up to. The leaves look like a green roof, and shade off the sun.

I call it the Rock Tree.

Kyra de Bruin – Voting No. 51

Category: My Tree - Child

Location: Chambers Island My tree sprouts generations of fun. We make homes out of it.

Me and my friend have rooms and a kitchen and other things you would have in a house.

Every tangled up bit is something special.

I started climbing when I was about 5. Me and my best friend have been climbing on it for a very long time since.

Even though we are 12 we don’t intend to stop climbing.

It is the best tree ever and I will love it for years to come.

Jackway Children – Voting No. 52 Location: Eumundi Town The magic wishing tree We believe in magic, fairies and wishes Have you ever seen a tree as magic as me?

Category: My Market Tree

Lisa, Monique & Nelly Delanoue – Voting No. 53

Category: My Market Tree

Location: Eumundi

My Tree, My Town, My Home…

The trees that shade my town are Huge and Old, they have a timelessness about them that makes us think they have been here forever – and will still be here – long after we’re all grown up, grown old and gone…

Many people visit the trees on market days – but few know the simple pleasure of leaning up against their solid trunks (not like we do).

They are a home for so many little Eumundi creatures, they are our lungs and clean our air.

They are the best climbing trees – and when we are in their boughs and branches – we know – we are at peace, we are at home…

We are in Eumundi Town.

Jeannie Musgrave – Voting No. 54

Category: My Market Tree

Location: Original Eumundi Markets Luminous Tree Years back, when my children were small my favourite market stall was a little organic fruit and vegetable stall that was wrapped in the roots of this tree.

Little did we know that we as market shoppers were selecting our delectable organic produce were slowly suffocating this and the other giant wonders along the main street of Eumundi. The roots were like little hedges that separated each individual stall, like giants feet they were holding the enormous canopy of foliage above making a cool shopper’s paradise below.

I'd diligently search the market for the best produce, treading down the earth that surrounded this beautiful giant tree. Children would playfully climb all over the roots and the elderly would sit to catch their breath on the enormous roots that spread out wide to catch the rain and nutrients for the tree to survive.

But someone heard the trees cry for help, and the stalls were moved away from the fragile root system.

At last the trees could breathe life into the air again making oxygen for the town, towering over the street to be enjoyed by all for many more years to come. Board walks were built above the roots so today we can still sit and ponder and shelter from the sun under this great tree.

Kait Manchip – Voting No. 55

Category: My Market Tree

Location: Original Eumundi Markets I have loved Fig trees since I was quite young. I was enchanted by the big old figs in the Sydney Botanical Gardens. They looked so magical, and I am sure that is where fairies live, among the tangled branches and dangling roots. When I moved to the Sunshine Coast my love of fig trees grew, with really stunning examples, around Buderim, Charlie Moreland Park, Maleny, Eumundi and lots more.

But this tree - it is my local and approachable fig, not too precious, like the big Memorial Figs along the main road.

So I decided to make this tree a colourful jumper! With help from numerous (mostly female) locals and many hours spent by me sitting up this tree sewing bits of knitting together, I saw my idea come to fruition. Stretching the fabric around each branch, each dangling little root I got to know this tree intimately, hugging the trunk to keep me from falling. I wanted people to stop and really look at the trees, to gaze and appreciate them, not take them for granted.

This Tree, and this photo, is a record of achievement for me personally, I had an idea, dealt with red tape, found volunteers, made new friends, re-learnt how to knit and made it happen. It connected me to my local town - Eumundi. This tree makes me proud.

Joyce Jackway – Voting No. 56

Category: My Market Tree

Location: Memorial Drive Eumundi – the Original Eumundi Market area My Tree How magic can a tree be?

For you, me and everyone else to see Take time out to look, see and just be See the beauty and magic as reflected in this tree…

Erenee McGovern – Voting No. 57

Category: My Tree - Adult

Location: Cooroy This may at first glance look just like another photo of a backyard tree, but what you don’t know is this tree holds one of my family’s greatest treasures!

Beneath its shady branches lies the final resting place of our beautiful friend ‘Tootsie’.

For all those non dog lovers, let me just say, this little dog in her sixteen years of life won her way into even the hardest of hearts.

Six months ago, my mum and a very old, grey and frail Tootsie came to live with my husband and I in beautiful Cooroy. The new move sparked a fresh lease on life for both of them, however, sadly for us ‘little dogs don’t live forever’.

So now in the ground under my tree, you’ll see a bright red rock and a wonky wooden cross and this is where we sit to remember how magnificent the tree is to hold such a treasure!