In Search of Furmston's Tree

Hidden away in the Yarra Ranges, unknown to the general public is Harold Furmston's Tree, which at 19.5m circumference is believed to be the largest gum tree in the world. So how do you hide the world's largest gum tree? Well unfortunately it lies a short distance inside the Maroondah Catchment and as such access is restricted to the general public so it isn't the sort of thing you put on a tourist brochure.

The public access to the Maroondah catchment was totally restricted in the 1930s by the Board of Works shortly after the death of an experienced bushwalker in the area. Bah humbug, we're talking the world's largest gum tree here, and so, accompanied by a couple of friends whom I will refer to as Paula and Julie to reveal their true identities, I set out for a day trip to find this tree.

Finding the tree should have been relatively easy. The picture in the book showed it next to a road. We had a grid reference and a map. This narrowed it down to two tracks 'just' inside the Maroondah Catchment near the intersection of five tracks. It should've been possible to drive nearly all the way and I chose the shortest track that didn't have a gate on it. It all seemed a little too easy on paper until.....

After turning off from the main road we got about 300m before we came across the first of many large trees blown across the road. I'd left the axe at home but that wasn't going to help us anyway so this was the beginning of the walk. At least we can say that we have walked part of the Bicentennial National Trail.

We came to the second fork in the road at which point we should have gone left up a track that looked pretty overgrown like one of those tracks that doesn't often appear on the map. We kept going.... Oops. Rather than back tracking we decided to cut through the bush up to the other track which was only a couple of hundred metres away. The undergrowth was relatively thin thanks to the lyre birds in the area although I suspect that it was on this short stretch that I had "acquired" a leech on my shin. We made the "track" for want of a better word, which was distinguishable only by the fact that it had been cut into the hillside and enough people had walked along it to create a path through the trees.

This "path" gradually became more indistinct until it eventually disappeared altogether after crossing a large fallen tree. This is what happens when it all seems just a little too easy at the start. We were near the saddle at this point so it was no real problem taking the clearest route through the trees towards one of the other five tracks that met at the top.

I was somewhat amazed when we reached the next "track" on the border of the catchment area for there was not only a track but a 50m wide clearing running along the boundary. Why the boundary would be cleared like this is anyone's guess as it certainly wouldn't stop a bush fire going through. I had visions of helicopter patrols looking for rogue hikers crossing the boundary

We walked down to the intersection of several tracks near which was Furmston's tree. The forest was reasonably open and given that we were so close, we wondered why we couldn't see it and so we wandered off along the next track...