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Gum: The Story of Eucalypts and Their Champions
No matter where you look in Australia you're more than likely to see a eucalyptus tree. Scrawny or majestic, smooth as pearl or rough as a pub brawl, they have defined a continent for thousands of years, and still shape our imagination.
Indigenous Australians have long woven myths about the abilities of the eucalyptus. Since Australia was colonised, botanists have battled for more than two hundred years in a race to count, classify and own the species. This is the story of that battle and of other eucalyptographers – explorers, poets, painters, foresters, conservationists, scientists (and engine drivers) – who have been obsessed by them, championing their powers. Gum trees have promised to cure malaria, solve the drainage problems that had defeated the Roman emperors, forest the Sahara and divine gold.
Gum is about a magical, mythical, medicinal tree. More than that, it's the story of new worlds, strange people and big ideas.
Indigenous Australians have long woven myths about the abilities of the eucalyptus. Since Australia was colonised, botanists have battled for more than two hundred years in a race to count, classify and own the species. This is the story of that battle and of other eucalyptographers – explorers, poets, painters, foresters, conservationists, scientists (and engine drivers) – who have been obsessed by them, championing their powers. Gum trees have promised to cure malaria, solve the drainage problems that had defeated the Roman emperors, forest the Sahara and divine gold.
Gum is about a magical, mythical, medicinal tree. More than that, it's the story of new worlds, strange people and big ideas.
275 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2002
30 people are currently reading
354 people want to read
About the author
Ashley Hay
43 books223 followersAshley Hay’s new novel, A Hundred Small Lessons, was published in Australia, the US and the UK and was shortlisted for categories in the 2017 Queensland Literary Awards.
Set in her new home city of Brisbane, it traces the intertwined lives of two women from different generations through a story of love, and of life. It takes account of what it means to be mother or daughter; father or son and tells a rich and intimate story of how we feel what it is to be human, and how place can transform who we are.
Her previous novel, The Railwayman’s Wife, was published in Australia, the UK, the US, and is heading for translation into Italian, French and Dutch. It won the Colin Roderick Prize (awarded by the Foundation for Australian Literary Studies), as well as the People's Choice award in the 2014 NSW Premier's Prize, and was also longlisted for both the Miles Franklin and Nita B. Kibble awards.
Her first novel, The Body in the Clouds (2010), was shortlisted for categories in the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize and the NSW and WA premier’s prizes, and longlisted for the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award.
Her previous books span fiction and non-fiction and include Gum: The Story of Eucalypts and Their Champions (2002), Museum (2007; with visual artist Robyn Stacey), and Best Australian Science Writing 2014 (as editor)s
A writer for more than 20 years, her essays and short stories have appeared in volumes including the Griffith Review, Best Australian Essays (2003), Best Australian Short Stories (2012), and Best Australian Science Writing (2012), and have been awarded various accolades in Australia and overseas. In 2016, she received the Bragg UNSW Press Prize for Science Writing.
Set in her new home city of Brisbane, it traces the intertwined lives of two women from different generations through a story of love, and of life. It takes account of what it means to be mother or daughter; father or son and tells a rich and intimate story of how we feel what it is to be human, and how place can transform who we are.
Her previous novel, The Railwayman’s Wife, was published in Australia, the UK, the US, and is heading for translation into Italian, French and Dutch. It won the Colin Roderick Prize (awarded by the Foundation for Australian Literary Studies), as well as the People's Choice award in the 2014 NSW Premier's Prize, and was also longlisted for both the Miles Franklin and Nita B. Kibble awards.
Her first novel, The Body in the Clouds (2010), was shortlisted for categories in the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize and the NSW and WA premier’s prizes, and longlisted for the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award.
Her previous books span fiction and non-fiction and include Gum: The Story of Eucalypts and Their Champions (2002), Museum (2007; with visual artist Robyn Stacey), and Best Australian Science Writing 2014 (as editor)s
A writer for more than 20 years, her essays and short stories have appeared in volumes including the Griffith Review, Best Australian Essays (2003), Best Australian Short Stories (2012), and Best Australian Science Writing (2012), and have been awarded various accolades in Australia and overseas. In 2016, she received the Bragg UNSW Press Prize for Science Writing.
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Displaying 1 - 27 of 27 reviews
December 15, 2024
Colonial stories of eucalyptus, couldn’t care less. So boring I can’t finish
January 14, 2023
Genuinely fascinating read, highlighting how little I know about Eucalyptus. I really enjoyed learning about Major Mitchell and Von Muller's role in the scientific assessment of the species, the initial disdain for the trees and their ultimate commercialisation.
Key learnings:
- Sir Joseph Banks was a prick; multiple reasons and also the Banksia is named for him.
- Major Mitchell advocated for the retention of traditional Indigenous names for Eucalyptus trees; although this doesn't balance out his harm.
- May Gibbs commercialised Eucalyptus, drawing on her experiences in South Australia and Western Australia but as most women do, she struggled to be appreciated as an illustrator and died without much wealth at all (despite the pervasiveness of the Sung and Cud Inc)
- In the 1800s/1900s Eucalyptus seeds were sent all over the world and can be found in six continents with several countries such as Nigeria, India and Brazil establishing plantations for their pulp and lumber needs.
- Already knew fire was good, but 80% of the Blue Mountains Eucalyptus was burned in the 2019/2020 fires
Key learnings:
- Sir Joseph Banks was a prick; multiple reasons and also the Banksia is named for him.
- Major Mitchell advocated for the retention of traditional Indigenous names for Eucalyptus trees; although this doesn't balance out his harm.
- May Gibbs commercialised Eucalyptus, drawing on her experiences in South Australia and Western Australia but as most women do, she struggled to be appreciated as an illustrator and died without much wealth at all (despite the pervasiveness of the Sung and Cud Inc)
- In the 1800s/1900s Eucalyptus seeds were sent all over the world and can be found in six continents with several countries such as Nigeria, India and Brazil establishing plantations for their pulp and lumber needs.
- Already knew fire was good, but 80% of the Blue Mountains Eucalyptus was burned in the 2019/2020 fires
January 7, 2022
I read the updated 2021 edition of this wide sweeping and phenomenal work. I'm feeling a lot of emotions.
April 19, 2023
Brilliant. Couldn’t put it down. Well paced and entertaining. I’ll never look at or ignore a “gum” tree the same way again. Very recommended. I’ll be looking for more books from Ashley Hay.
January 4, 2022
'Gum' is as much a love letter to Australia's most iconic tree - the eucalypt - as it is a fascinating examination of their diverse characteristics and complex classification, bewildering and alluring botanists and tree lovers over time. This meticulously researched work examines ancient origin stories of gums alongside the stories of those who came with colonisation and sought to understand, exploit, eradicate or protect them. Canonical in its scope, this new edition is as relevant today as it was when it was first published in 2002, especially with the new material included now that we have a greater understanding of the consequences of climate change and are increasingly seeing the threat and scale of destruction caused by bushfires. Loved it.
March 9, 2022
Bit of this was really interesting and other parts not so much. Overall 3 stars.
December 17, 2023
For Australians, wattle’s yellow spray is a recognisable floral emblem. But the drooping eucalypt leaf is perhaps more evocative of our connection to the bush. Ashley Hay’s book, here updating her original 2001 work, tells the story of these trees great and small, and charts their placement and promotion across our country’s history. It's engaging and revealing.
Gum trees’ proponents are given due attention. Here is just a sample, spread over three centuries:
• Joseph Banks, who collected samples during Cook’s first voyage of 1768-1771 and first referred to them as ‘gum’ trees for their sticky oozings. Early botanical works of identification by colonial collectors and gardeners found their way to Banks’ ever increasing collection, but only to gather dust (the great man of English botany was adroit at possession, but apathetic at publication).
• Ferdinand Mueller, Victoria’s government botanist in the mid-19th century, who promoted the trees’ scientific and commercial prospects, distributed thousands of their seeds around the world, and published a 10-volume atlas of the species.
• May Gibbs, who created a cherubic gumnut community, sustained over many years of newspaper and book-form publications in the early 20th century, and provided nostalgic succour for homesick Diggers in the First World War.
Early eucalypt boosters form a mostly British and Australian roll-call. But Mueller was German and it was a Frenchman, Charles Louis L’Heritier, who in 1788 examined part of Banks’ huge collection and applied the Western botanical name we are familiar with: from the Greek eu (well) and klyptus (covered), describing the smooth casing around the gum’s developing flowers.
The Eucalypt genera comprises Eucalyptus, Corymbia, and Angophora, and all three are commonly called eucalypts. Initial identification efforts in New South Wales steadily expanded the known eucalypt species, and collector George Caley and botanist Robert Brown made important contributions; Caley among the first to gather Indigenous knowledge and recognise that the trees could hybridise, and Brown publishing the first extensive work on the native vegetation.
Gradually, and despite efforts of pessimistic opponents - impervious to the charms of these antipodean perennials - eucalypts entered the colonial consciousness. Occasionally, a single tree marked a significant achievement of early European explorers, or symbolised an important location in their journeys. One celebrated the claiming of the Murray; another commemorated the charting of the Lachlan. And the ‘Dig Tree,’ by the fitful Cooper Creek in far western Queensland, is a coolibah (Eucalyptus microtheca) which came to symbolise the wretched exploratory near-miss of the Burke & Wills expedition.
The country called ‘the land of the gum tree’ by Scottish explorer and surveyor Thomas Mitchell was gradually traversed, charted, and documented. With the help of his Aboriginal guide Mitchell connected the river red gum (E. camaldulensis) to the water courses it usually escorted, and brought relief to his thirsty party. Ironically, his trigonometric mapping of the NSW colony meant the clearing of many mature trees to allow the line-of-sight readings required by his famous survey.
Hay returns more than once to Mitchell’s journals and diaries for detailed descriptions, and a growing appreciation, of the gums he encountered. And these trees are a well-travelled bunch. Even in the early nineteenth century eucalypt samples, with shedding bark that so perplexed the early settlers, were thriving in England and on the Continent. By mid-century the energetic Ferdinand Mueller had facilitated their diaspora to dozens of other countries. And in California they had been a presence since the 1850s, commonly used for fuel but also as handy windbreaks for the state’s citrus groves.
A story is recounted of an American serviceman commenting upon arrival in Sydney in the 1940s, “I see you have some of our eucalypts here.” Perhaps our gum trees beat the Yanks to the punch with the ‘over sexed and over here’ adage…
Hay’s champions are artistic as well as scientific. In early Tasmania, English artist John Glover became the eucalypt’s first dedicated portraitist. He rendered their interwoven trunks and tenuous leaves in a delightful realism which, if not appreciated by London reviewers of his 1835 exhibition, found a place in the hearts of his Vandemonian audience.
In the mid-twentieth century Arrente man Albert Namatjira was the first Indigenous artist to receive popular acclaim. His ghost gums (Corymbia papuana) were creamy white columns - splayed, gnarled, and leaning - set in contrast to the lovely reds and mauves with which he wrought the landscape at the centre of the continent. Many were to follow, and a growing band of Indigenous painters presented the trees in a more figurative sense. They could be a challenge to apprehend; the great John Olsen poetically described gum trees that ‘needed calligraphy to catch them,’ and Fred Williams’ canvases made evocation, rather than representation, the primary display technique.
The camera lens captured the trees’ beauty differently than the artist’s brush. In the Flinders Ranges, backdropped by Wilpena Pound’s mountainous amphitheatre, is a solitary river red gum, famous since its capture by the Australian photographer Harold Cazneaux in 1937. He called his work ‘Spirit of Endurance’ for its subject’s storm-and-fire scarring, but such is its popularity it is now known simply as the Cazneaux Tree. Hundreds of years old, its grand posture and ongoing resilience is emblematic of the species.
More champions stepped forward. The redoubtable Max Jacobs was a forester, academic, and author, and sponsored Australia’s eucalypts to the world in the post-war era - their golden age. The United Nations’ Food and Agricultural Organisation vigorously promoted eucalypts from the 1950s, and Jacobs helped add countries such as Nigeria and Libya to the list of those already familiar with the species and planting them in great numbers, like India, Italy, Spain, Brazil, Israel, and the United States. Their main attraction? They grew fast, so were an easily replenishable source of fuel, sawn wood, charcoal, and medicinal oil.
• Ethiopia’s capital, Addis Ababa (‘new flower’) is named after the eucalypts planted there as a fuel source
• Several countries with well-established eucalypt plantations considered introducing koalas (but, on United Nations advice, never followed through)
• Indian foresters of the mid-19th century recognised that young bluegums’ (E. globulus) leaves were so full of oil glands that grazing animals would not touch them. It was a goat-proof tree, much to it planters’ delight
• Of the approximately 800 eucalypt species, only about 30 are preferred by koalas.
But in time eucalypts’ attractions overseas faded, and they became much less used for fuel offshore. The desire for hardwood sources of pulp meant in the developing world, particularly India, viable native forests were being cleared for the fast-growing eucalypt – the pulp industry could pay higher prices than those looking for timber or fuel. In Australia, the deleterious effects on forests of clear felling for pulp and wood chips saw a rise in conservation awareness and concern for the environment. Tasmania’s mighty swamp gum (E. regnans) became a talisman for protesting environmentalists after the flooding of lakes Pedder and Gordon in the 1970s, the emblem carried over into the successful campaign against the flooding of the Franklin River in the early 1980s.
This species, named by Mueller and called mountain ash in Victoria, is truly a monarch of the glen, towering to over 90 metres in its Apple Isle glades. In 2000 Forestry Tasmania announced trees higher than 85 metres would be protected. ‘Very tall trees fascinate people.’
As you might expect in a natural history book, the spectre of climate change looms large. Here, research suggests that these marvellous engines of carbon sequestration may be in trouble. Surprisingly for trees considered abundant and robust, eucalypts occupy a narrow climatic range. That is, the temperature and rainfall they experience is quite narrow at the species level; nearly 70 per cent of gums have ranges that cover less than 1 per cent of the continent.
A eucalypt species grown in plantation in South Africa does not flower in these slightly warmer conditions; no flowering means no seed production, means no reproduction. A rapidly changing climate will strain gums’ adaptability, and that’s also bad news for the other species for which they provide a habitat.
Bushfires can kill them, but not usually those equipped with a lignotuber (a woody growth in the root system containing starch and buds). They have what the author calls the ‘dangerously cosy relationship between eucalyptus and fire.’ It was ever thus; fossil eucalypts are found alongside deposits of fossil charcoal.
Eucalypts are the tallest hardwoods, anywhere, and the tallest flowering plants. From the low mallee to the majestic regnans, from Western Australia’s tough jarrah (E. marginata) to the cold-tolerant snow gum (E. pauciflora), they dominate the 17% of Australian landmass covered by native forest.
Familiarity breeds, well, more familiarity. Gum trees’ near-ubiquity does not mean they can’t inspire awe. On the median strip of a nondescript through road in Hampton Park, in Melbourne’s south-east, is a striking river red gum. Old and thick of trunk, its slant reflects a century of prevailing westerlies. Its standout feature is a beautiful multi-coloured swirl in its trunk bark, brown and grey hues that thread out of the earth and spiral up to its lower branches. No two gums ever look the same.
Hay’s potted history of the book’s eponymous trees is also the story of the colony that became a country, and projects this trajectory though the lens, or rather the grey-green patina, of the now much-loved eucalypt. You may find yourself afterward identifying species when passing these vertical collages of bark and branch. I know I now do. Enjoy.
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/review...
Gum trees’ proponents are given due attention. Here is just a sample, spread over three centuries:
• Joseph Banks, who collected samples during Cook’s first voyage of 1768-1771 and first referred to them as ‘gum’ trees for their sticky oozings. Early botanical works of identification by colonial collectors and gardeners found their way to Banks’ ever increasing collection, but only to gather dust (the great man of English botany was adroit at possession, but apathetic at publication).
• Ferdinand Mueller, Victoria’s government botanist in the mid-19th century, who promoted the trees’ scientific and commercial prospects, distributed thousands of their seeds around the world, and published a 10-volume atlas of the species.
• May Gibbs, who created a cherubic gumnut community, sustained over many years of newspaper and book-form publications in the early 20th century, and provided nostalgic succour for homesick Diggers in the First World War.
Early eucalypt boosters form a mostly British and Australian roll-call. But Mueller was German and it was a Frenchman, Charles Louis L’Heritier, who in 1788 examined part of Banks’ huge collection and applied the Western botanical name we are familiar with: from the Greek eu (well) and klyptus (covered), describing the smooth casing around the gum’s developing flowers.
The Eucalypt genera comprises Eucalyptus, Corymbia, and Angophora, and all three are commonly called eucalypts. Initial identification efforts in New South Wales steadily expanded the known eucalypt species, and collector George Caley and botanist Robert Brown made important contributions; Caley among the first to gather Indigenous knowledge and recognise that the trees could hybridise, and Brown publishing the first extensive work on the native vegetation.
Gradually, and despite efforts of pessimistic opponents - impervious to the charms of these antipodean perennials - eucalypts entered the colonial consciousness. Occasionally, a single tree marked a significant achievement of early European explorers, or symbolised an important location in their journeys. One celebrated the claiming of the Murray; another commemorated the charting of the Lachlan. And the ‘Dig Tree,’ by the fitful Cooper Creek in far western Queensland, is a coolibah (Eucalyptus microtheca) which came to symbolise the wretched exploratory near-miss of the Burke & Wills expedition.
The country called ‘the land of the gum tree’ by Scottish explorer and surveyor Thomas Mitchell was gradually traversed, charted, and documented. With the help of his Aboriginal guide Mitchell connected the river red gum (E. camaldulensis) to the water courses it usually escorted, and brought relief to his thirsty party. Ironically, his trigonometric mapping of the NSW colony meant the clearing of many mature trees to allow the line-of-sight readings required by his famous survey.
Hay returns more than once to Mitchell’s journals and diaries for detailed descriptions, and a growing appreciation, of the gums he encountered. And these trees are a well-travelled bunch. Even in the early nineteenth century eucalypt samples, with shedding bark that so perplexed the early settlers, were thriving in England and on the Continent. By mid-century the energetic Ferdinand Mueller had facilitated their diaspora to dozens of other countries. And in California they had been a presence since the 1850s, commonly used for fuel but also as handy windbreaks for the state’s citrus groves.
A story is recounted of an American serviceman commenting upon arrival in Sydney in the 1940s, “I see you have some of our eucalypts here.” Perhaps our gum trees beat the Yanks to the punch with the ‘over sexed and over here’ adage…
Hay’s champions are artistic as well as scientific. In early Tasmania, English artist John Glover became the eucalypt’s first dedicated portraitist. He rendered their interwoven trunks and tenuous leaves in a delightful realism which, if not appreciated by London reviewers of his 1835 exhibition, found a place in the hearts of his Vandemonian audience.
In the mid-twentieth century Arrente man Albert Namatjira was the first Indigenous artist to receive popular acclaim. His ghost gums (Corymbia papuana) were creamy white columns - splayed, gnarled, and leaning - set in contrast to the lovely reds and mauves with which he wrought the landscape at the centre of the continent. Many were to follow, and a growing band of Indigenous painters presented the trees in a more figurative sense. They could be a challenge to apprehend; the great John Olsen poetically described gum trees that ‘needed calligraphy to catch them,’ and Fred Williams’ canvases made evocation, rather than representation, the primary display technique.
The camera lens captured the trees’ beauty differently than the artist’s brush. In the Flinders Ranges, backdropped by Wilpena Pound’s mountainous amphitheatre, is a solitary river red gum, famous since its capture by the Australian photographer Harold Cazneaux in 1937. He called his work ‘Spirit of Endurance’ for its subject’s storm-and-fire scarring, but such is its popularity it is now known simply as the Cazneaux Tree. Hundreds of years old, its grand posture and ongoing resilience is emblematic of the species.
More champions stepped forward. The redoubtable Max Jacobs was a forester, academic, and author, and sponsored Australia’s eucalypts to the world in the post-war era - their golden age. The United Nations’ Food and Agricultural Organisation vigorously promoted eucalypts from the 1950s, and Jacobs helped add countries such as Nigeria and Libya to the list of those already familiar with the species and planting them in great numbers, like India, Italy, Spain, Brazil, Israel, and the United States. Their main attraction? They grew fast, so were an easily replenishable source of fuel, sawn wood, charcoal, and medicinal oil.
• Ethiopia’s capital, Addis Ababa (‘new flower’) is named after the eucalypts planted there as a fuel source
• Several countries with well-established eucalypt plantations considered introducing koalas (but, on United Nations advice, never followed through)
• Indian foresters of the mid-19th century recognised that young bluegums’ (E. globulus) leaves were so full of oil glands that grazing animals would not touch them. It was a goat-proof tree, much to it planters’ delight
• Of the approximately 800 eucalypt species, only about 30 are preferred by koalas.
But in time eucalypts’ attractions overseas faded, and they became much less used for fuel offshore. The desire for hardwood sources of pulp meant in the developing world, particularly India, viable native forests were being cleared for the fast-growing eucalypt – the pulp industry could pay higher prices than those looking for timber or fuel. In Australia, the deleterious effects on forests of clear felling for pulp and wood chips saw a rise in conservation awareness and concern for the environment. Tasmania’s mighty swamp gum (E. regnans) became a talisman for protesting environmentalists after the flooding of lakes Pedder and Gordon in the 1970s, the emblem carried over into the successful campaign against the flooding of the Franklin River in the early 1980s.
This species, named by Mueller and called mountain ash in Victoria, is truly a monarch of the glen, towering to over 90 metres in its Apple Isle glades. In 2000 Forestry Tasmania announced trees higher than 85 metres would be protected. ‘Very tall trees fascinate people.’
As you might expect in a natural history book, the spectre of climate change looms large. Here, research suggests that these marvellous engines of carbon sequestration may be in trouble. Surprisingly for trees considered abundant and robust, eucalypts occupy a narrow climatic range. That is, the temperature and rainfall they experience is quite narrow at the species level; nearly 70 per cent of gums have ranges that cover less than 1 per cent of the continent.
A eucalypt species grown in plantation in South Africa does not flower in these slightly warmer conditions; no flowering means no seed production, means no reproduction. A rapidly changing climate will strain gums’ adaptability, and that’s also bad news for the other species for which they provide a habitat.
Bushfires can kill them, but not usually those equipped with a lignotuber (a woody growth in the root system containing starch and buds). They have what the author calls the ‘dangerously cosy relationship between eucalyptus and fire.’ It was ever thus; fossil eucalypts are found alongside deposits of fossil charcoal.
Eucalypts are the tallest hardwoods, anywhere, and the tallest flowering plants. From the low mallee to the majestic regnans, from Western Australia’s tough jarrah (E. marginata) to the cold-tolerant snow gum (E. pauciflora), they dominate the 17% of Australian landmass covered by native forest.
Familiarity breeds, well, more familiarity. Gum trees’ near-ubiquity does not mean they can’t inspire awe. On the median strip of a nondescript through road in Hampton Park, in Melbourne’s south-east, is a striking river red gum. Old and thick of trunk, its slant reflects a century of prevailing westerlies. Its standout feature is a beautiful multi-coloured swirl in its trunk bark, brown and grey hues that thread out of the earth and spiral up to its lower branches. No two gums ever look the same.
Hay’s potted history of the book’s eponymous trees is also the story of the colony that became a country, and projects this trajectory though the lens, or rather the grey-green patina, of the now much-loved eucalypt. You may find yourself afterward identifying species when passing these vertical collages of bark and branch. I know I now do. Enjoy.
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/review...
August 28, 2025
Gum: The story of eucalypts and their champions. This book was not what I was expecting. I picked it up thinking it would be more scientific, or discuss the eucalypts themselves and their relationships to Australia, the Traditional Owners, the colonisers, and the world in general. Instead, it was reversed, and it discussed the relationships that the aforementioned had with the trees. It read very much like a love letter to Gum trees, which was lovely. I enjoyed the first half very much, and then struggled a little to remain engaged with the second. That had nothing to do with the writing or the topics, and more so that this became a slow moments at work book, where I would pick it up over lunch and read a few pages. Overall, it was written very well, and I definitely learnt from these pages.
August 24, 2023
When I picked this up, I was expecting something more botanical. What I got was a history that opened my eyes to the pivotal role eucalyptus has played in Australia, particularly for the country's settlers. As explorers began moving further around the coasts and into the interior of the country, they brought with them their experience of other climes, particularly those with fully crowned, deciduous trees. The eucalypts defied all their expectations and proved more widespread, useful, varied, and challenging than they could have expected. As a transplant to this gum-covered land, I will look at the over 900 species of eucalyptus with far more interest after reading Hay's fascinating book.
January 7, 2024
Did not finish. Social and economic history was interesting but I didn't really have sustained attention through the book. I perhaps came to the book with different intentions of what I would learn. Also I feel like there was not enough acknowledgement or discussion of first peoples history and connection to the eucalypt and its broader connection to culture and story. Quite disappointed with this aspect.
November 8, 2025
I think this felt like a partially detailed history of botany, but almost exclusively for the colonial perspective. I didn’t appreciate the silence on the Indigenous knowledge and previous context that the trees and our country has had.
I feel this would be incredibly well-formed and meaningful with further info from those who were experts long before colonisation. I did enjoy the focus on such a fascinating cultural touchstone, but I just could have done with a little more.
I feel this would be incredibly well-formed and meaningful with further info from those who were experts long before colonisation. I did enjoy the focus on such a fascinating cultural touchstone, but I just could have done with a little more.
September 11, 2024
Really struggled with this book, and was excited to read it.
I think that all the perspectives began from colonisation with little to no indigenous or evolutionary perspectives.
But then I've read books like that before and enjoyed them. Just didn't click with this one. It felt like a chore to read.
I think that all the perspectives began from colonisation with little to no indigenous or evolutionary perspectives.
But then I've read books like that before and enjoyed them. Just didn't click with this one. It felt like a chore to read.
April 19, 2023
Fascinating insights into such a wide range of issues relating to human relationship with gum trees. Both an enjoyable read and a valuable learning experience about gum trees and broader issues of connections with Australian land and the very long history of human involvement with the land.
August 11, 2025
look great overview of the beautiful diversity of eucalypts, but little too much colonial history for me to rave on. well written with good bit of nerdy stuff and clearly the author loves the absolute shit out of gums, i just lose interest over the old white fella bits after a while :P
December 30, 2025
A bit meandering. But, as someone who has only just visited Australia, I enjoyed reading about the colonial history and interactions with the eucalypts as well as learning some about the botany. It does lean towards the historical, not the scientific Will need another book for that, I guess.
August 6, 2017
Great read!
November 19, 2023
I aspire to have an arboretum of Eucalypts like Dean Nicolle one day
December 10, 2023
Read at Mum's. A nice collection of brief biographies around the theme of people who wrote about Australian eucalyptus trees. I enjoyed it a lot, and learnt quite a bit.
August 14, 2024
Did not finish
October 13, 2025
A non specialist compendium of information about eucalyptus trees. Interesting, but not exciting
January 14, 2026
Would have loved a bit more botany and biology, but still, just a tremendous book!
July 24, 2023
Great introduction to gum trees & their history since white colonisation of Australia. Trees sure got overlooked. Ashley Hay's skilful storytelling style will get you in even if you have no interest in trees or find botany confusing. Lots of seed planting -
introducing different species of eucalyptus, figures in white Australian history who identified, named & classified the trees - but it's not boring, May Gibbs chapter was a highlight sweet & thought-provoking - she knew her stuff! Story of how eucalyptus was marketed as a wonder tree & has wound up being a weed around the world in places as far as India, Brazil, California....the last couple of chapters lost me as I'm not into tech. Still loved this book, both informative & entertaining & represents the beautiful eucalyptus very well.
introducing different species of eucalyptus, figures in white Australian history who identified, named & classified the trees - but it's not boring, May Gibbs chapter was a highlight sweet & thought-provoking - she knew her stuff! Story of how eucalyptus was marketed as a wonder tree & has wound up being a weed around the world in places as far as India, Brazil, California....the last couple of chapters lost me as I'm not into tech. Still loved this book, both informative & entertaining & represents the beautiful eucalyptus very well.
August 5, 2012
i love gum trees!
i love trees!
i love trees!
February 7, 2015
Just loved it! Sooo readable! Enjoyed the stories behind Banks, Major Mitchell, Baron von Mueller and the fire fighters in the Ash Wednesday bush fires. Great writing!
November 29, 2021
A fascinating account of our iconic trees. The information in relation to fire and climate change was particularly of interest. More history than botany, very readable and enjoyable.
September 7, 2023
A brilliant, gorgeous book - would recommend to anyone
Displaying 1 - 27 of 27 reviews