Australia's tallest and largest trees found among Tasmanian giants

Embargoed until: Publicly released: 2025-01-30 00:01

Australia; TAS

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Australian researchers have documented the tallest trees in Tasmania, including what the authors say is Australia's tallest known living tree, the 96m giant called ‘Centurion'. By comparison, the researchers say the tallest known tree in Victoria is 93m tall, in WA it is a 78m tall specimen,  NSW's tallest tree is 71 m tall and Queensland's ‘Big Bob’,  is 72.8m tall. The authors say there are no known trees over 70 m in SA, NT or the ACT. The researchers also discovered a tree with a trunk volume of 463m3, which they say is easily the largest known tree in Australia. The researchers set out to document the tallest trees in Tasmania and found six species of eucalypts with trees that are either more than 70m tall or 11.5 m in girth. These giant trees occur in a band between dry forests and temperate rainforests, and the researchers say they are vulnerable to fire, with 60% of the largest known trees killed by fire since 2004.