Cleveland Heritage Pines

As noted in the post Photographic records help to age trees in the southeast corner of Queensland Norfolk Island Pines have often been planted as part of the emerging character of our developing towns, and carried on into the early 20th century municipal landscape design.

This is the case all along the Gold Coast from Currumbin up to Jacobs Well, it is also the case in Cleveland on Moreton Bay, where two pines in particular stand out as significant historical landmarks. They are located at 127 Shore Street North and are believed to have been planted around the early 1860s by Brisbane Valley squatter Francis Edward Bigge, an enthusiastic promoter of Cleveland as a port town rival to the emerging dominance of Brisbane.

I was not able to take a photograph from the water, but these two trees apparently still have a useful role as aids to navigation for small boats approaching Cleveland.

The bifurcation in one of the trees is interesting such structural 'defects' are often focussed on by persons carrying out inspections and assessments of trees, clearly for this tree in its very very exposed site this 'defect' has not led to major failures under wind loading, despite being up there in the stem architecture for a very long time.

                             

Sketch of Cleveland 1892

The two trees are part of a small community of trees including a number of figs of varying ages, the Pines are listed on the Queensland Heritage Register Place ID 602181..they have (thus far) survived the process of urban development around them, and have changed very little in the last 100yrs, rather like many people the most noticable change in the appearance of the trees is the thinning of the canopy on top!

 View from the Cleveland Hotel 1906

Two pines and their neighbouring figs 2009

Excellent details regarding the recorded history of these two trees and the development of the local area can be found within the entry on the Qld Heritage Register; Cleveland Pines (left clicking this link will take you away from this page) There is also more detail regarding a recent trip to the Bay Islands on the Wandering Arborist Blog Cleveland and the Bay Islands (again left clicking this link will take you away from this page)