The historic but ageing 'Hovell Tree' near Albury (NSW) has been successfully reincarnated - in Canberra.

William Hovell marked the river red gum tree Hovell Nov R17/24 during the 1824 expedition with Hamilton Hume, as the two explorers camped by the Murray River, which they had just discovered.

Hume and Hovell explored southern New South Wales, crossed the Murrumbidgee and the 'Hume River', and eventually reached Port Phillip Bay. The Hume was later re-named the Murray.

In 1998 CSIRO's Mr Vic Hartney, a specialist in micropropagation of trees, used a cherry-picker to collect shoots from the top of the original tree, in order to create clones, following a request from the Albury Historical Society to the Albury City Council to clone the tree.

"We grafted the shoots to root stock of river red gum (Eucalyptus camaldulensis) . Successful grafting from an old river red gum tree like the Hovell tree is always difficult but we have managed to produce a number of healthy plants.

"We are supplying grafted plants and, we hope, rooted cuttings to the Albury City Council," say Mr Hartney.

Mr James Jenkins, the Council's Horticulture Supervisor says that the new trees will be planted close to the original tree. "When the old tree finally dies its genes will live on in these cloned trees."

"River red gums are now grown widely in other countries and the experience gained from these overseas collaborators has helped us in this work," says Mr Hartney.

"Grafting isn't common practice in eucalypts but we are developing skills in this area for use in tree improvement and ultimately vegetative propagation of superior hybrids," says Mr Hartney. "The aim is to produce trees suitable for timber production in the drier parts of the Murray Darling Basin."

The Hovell tree has great historical significance and has been watched over and cared for by the people of Albury. In the early 1900s the tree was found to be quite decayed and infested by termites. The decay was scraped out as far as possible and the hole filled with two tonnes of concrete. The tree has grown over this concrete and whilst in reasonably healthy condition is over 200 years of age.

A river red gum normally lives for hundreds of years if the seasonal water flow past its roots is not disturbed.

In the 1930s seed was collected from the Hovell tree and sown at the Botanic Gardens in Albury. According to W.B. Fellows, the Curator of the Albury Botanic Gardens, writing in 1941, this was done to perpetuate the memory of two noble men who did so much for Australia .

Seed however is the product of two parents and the resulting trees have turned out to be, in a number of cases, hybrids of the Hovell tree and other species.

The trees produced by Mr Hartney will be clones of the original tree, that is, exactly the same genetic material.

W.B. Fellows also rightly predicted that the tree would live for many years.

More information from:
Mr Vic Hartney (02) 6281 8228
Mr James Jenkins (02) 6023 8241
Mr Mick Crowe (02) 6281 8357
0419 696 184
E-mail: Mick.Crowe@ffp.csiro.au