Message from Ngambri elder Shane Mortimer

Hi Katherine,

Thank you for the interest and care you are taking for the Corroboree Tree at Ainslie. As the only descendant of James Ainslie and Ija Ngambri living in Ngambri Country, the site is significant to me as it is the location at which my Great Great Great Great Grandparents James Ainslie and Ija Ngambri camped when Ainslie was guided to the Ngambri Limestone Plains in 1825.

Further to our meeting at the Corroboree Tree site yesterday with Arborist Laurie Cullen, George Villaflor, Richard Webb and yourself, following are my thoughts.

The issuing of permits for public use of the park should be stopped forthwith! All traffic on the site is to be forbidden including government vehicles. Vehicles should be fined for parking on the site.

If this tree were in another part of this continent, it would be revered with awe and respected with the appropriate reverence. As pointed out by George Villaflor in citing the 'Two Tree Creek' reference in Tasmania.

Accounts of the Corroboree Tree being a mature specimen have been referred to for the past 150 years or more, which would place the tree age at around 300-400 years.

The Corroboree Tree has been encroached upon by species introduced to the site since European settlement. Three melaluca trees need to be removed from the site immediately, in addition to the emerging nettle bush. When this is done, a detailed assessment of the Corroboree Tree can be made, including ultrasound, following a period of settling time before any branches are trimmed or any choices are made about the trees health. As pointed out by Laurie Cullen, such an important tree should be given more than a cursory examination.

Protective fencing of the Corroboree Tree around it's drip-line would be a recommendation to preserve surface roots and help the tree revive.

Meanwhile, introduced grass species in the area need to be displaced by seeding of Indigenous grasses and other Indigenous grasslands plants that can be seeded in until the introduced species are overtaken.

ACT school students should be given information about Eucalyptus melliodora of which the Corroboree Tree is one given botanical reference to this and other Indigenous species of our region. In Sweden, school students are given five species per year to learn. They are given the botanical reference and no other. This is a great example.

I look forward to seeing the fruits of your enthusiasm.

Happy days!

Shane Mortimer

Ngambri Elder  
11 December 2009