The Nature Conservation Council is calling on Australians to save the world’s tallest spotted gum. The council is calling for signatories to a petition requesting the NSW State Government converts North Brooman State Forest to a reserve fully protected from logging (unlike state forests).
The group wants the reserve to be named Big Spotty Flora Reserve. Its centrepiece would be Big Spotty, a tremendous 500 year-old, 71 metre tall spotted gum.
They are also calling for a boardwalk, viewing platform and visitor access, so that more people can appreciate this tremendous tree.
The forest lies around 30 minutes south of Ulladulla, or 40 minutes’ drive north from the Canberra-Batemans Bay road – and from firefighter Paul Parker’s home town of Nelligen. It sits in the foothills on the coastal side of the Budawang National Park.
Because they’re reasonably common on the coastal slopes, from the South Coast all the way north to Taree, spotted gums are not necessarily protected. There has been logging in North Brooman State Forest since 2020, with further logging proposed to begin in the immediate vicinity of Big Spotty within the next three months.
“Big Spotty’s survival depends on the surrounding trees to protect its roots, stabilise soils, moderate wind and storm exposure, and maintain the microclimate large old trees need to survive,” as the Nature Conservation Council puts it. “This tree needs its forest!”
The majesty of New South Wales forests is sometimes overlooked, given they’re less iconic than the Tassie old growth forests or the Daintree. Yet NSW also hosts UNESCO World Heritage forest: for example, the north coast forests of Antarctic Beech, a Gondwana Relic species, and the Wollemi National Park in the Blue Mountains.
Conservation activists hope the Big Spotty campaign will be the first step in protecting all remaining coastal forest from Ulladulla to the Victorian border.
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