Landsborough Tree

Historic site in Queensland, Australia

17°44′21″S 139°33′53″E / 17.7391°S 139.5648°E / -17.7391; 139.5648

Queensland Heritage Register

Official nameLandsborough TreeTypestate heritage (landscape)Designated21 August 1992Reference no.600374Significant period1862-2002

Location of Landsborough Tree in Queensland

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Landsborough Tree (Australia)

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Landsborough Tree is a heritage-listed tree at Burketown, Shire of Burke, Queensland, Australia. It was added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 21 August 1992.^[1]

History

The Landsborough Tree marks the site by the Albert River where explorer William Landsborough established a depot camp while searching for the missing Burke and Wills expedition in 1862.^[2] He buried supplies near the eucalypt tree in case the explorers should come up upon it; he carved the word "Dig" into the tree.^[3]

The brig Firefly used in the search was abandoned nearby on the riverbank.^[2]

In December 2002, vandals set the tree alight, causing the trunk to fall over.^[3] In 2007, it was described as "nothing but a small charred stump", but by June 2009 there was a sapling "replanted" alongside the dead tree to replace it.^[4]

References

^ "Landsborough Tree (entry 600374)". Queensland Heritage Register. Queensland Heritage Council. Retrieved 1 August 2014.
^ ^a ^b "Burketown: a Matilda byway". Travel Action Matilda Country Magazine. Retrieved 11 July 2016.
^ ^a ^b "Fury over burnt explorer's landmark". Sydney Morning Herald. 24 December 2002. Retrieved 11 July 2016.
^ Martin, Richard J (September 2013), "'Reading' the Leichhardt, Landsborough and Gregory explorer trees of northern Australia", Cultural Studies Review, 19 (2): 216–236, ISSN 1446-8123

Attribution

This Wikipedia article was originally based on "The Queensland heritage register" published by the State of Queensland under CC-BY 3.0 AU licence (accessed on 7 July 2014, archived on 8 October 2014). The geo-coordinates were originally computed from the "Queensland heritage register boundaries" published by the State of Queensland under CC-BY 3.0 AU licence (accessed on 5 September 2014, archived on 15 October 2014).