Rotting and riddled with wasps, in the 1980s an ailing blue gum at Anglesea Barracks was filled with concrete to stabilise it. Almost four decades on the old tree still stands, is still alive, and the concrete is barely visible.
abc.net.au/news/blue-gum-at-anglesea-barracks-concrete-heart/102559148Hiding in plain sight at Anglesea Barracks in Hobart, the oldest Australian Army barracks still in use, is a solid piece of history easy to miss., a blue gum, thought to be nearing 200 years of age.
The cavity was cleaned of decay and later that week Mr Sherman used the leftover concrete to fill the tree.In an almost 40-year career attending the barracks, Mr Sherman has watched the concrete slowly disappear under new growth."I guess it's been one hundred per cent successful. The tree is still here, still standing."Tree's life documented in photography
"There's drawings earlier than the 1860s photograph where it's not shown, but photos provide probably a more accurate truth," Dr Hibbert said. Regular use of sonic tomography, a method that detects decay and structural issues, shows an expansion of strengthened and healthy wood on the tree.A younger tree can be seen behind what is now the Army Museum of Tasmania with troops in parade in 1898.Concrete was "probably" phased out soon after the Anglesea Barracks blue gum stop gap, according to Rebecca James, chair of the Tasmanian Arboriculture Organisation.
That was not the case for the barracks blue gum, which indicates good health through wound occlusion over the concrete.