TREE PLANTING

Hokitika Guardian, 8 October 1927, Page 3

TREE PLANTING

AN AUSTRALIAN AVENUE. SYDNEY, .Sept. 2G. The Australian Forest League lias in. band a big scheme for planting a purely Australian avenue right through from Sydney to the Federal Capital. Preference in planting where possible is to be given to Australian trees of the genus eucalyptus, the policy being to select those species which are natives of the districts in which they aro to he planted. They will thus he suitable to the local climate and geological formations, and, in addition to being more likely to grow well in their native place, will require a minimum of attention in their young state. It is believed, moreover, that, by selecting local species, each district will present its natural floral features, and will serve as an education as well as a delight to people passing through the various districts along this great highway to and from the capital of the Alotlier State and the capital of the Commonwealth. Such an avenue, with its distinctive Australian character, will, it is also* believed, he instructive to people coming from abroad, especially as it will he linked up with the comprehensive scheme of tree-planting at Canberra itself, which Australia hopes to acclaim in time as one of the garden cities of the world.

The /hope of the Forest League is that it will bo merely a. matter of time when there will be anothei avenue of typically Australian trees from Melbourne, the former temporary seat of Government, to Canberra. Shire and Municipal councils as well as individuals, through from Sydney to Canberra, are taking up enthusiastically the big scheme now in hand. It is hoped, incidentally, by tins project to awaken the public conscience to the tragic neglect of forestry in the past in Australia, and to a realisation of what it means economically and from the aesthetic standpoint.