Both perfectly shaped Christmas trees were selected from Penrose State Forest in the NSW Southern Highlands. Photo: Forestry Corporation.
One of the finest pines which got its start in a Snowy Valleys nursery has been selected to take pride of place in the foyer of Government House as a decorated Christmas tree.
It’s a Christmas tradition that for decades has brought festive season cheer to visitors to Sydney’s heritage-listed ‘Castle by the Sea’.
Germinated at Forestry Corporation’s Blowering Nursery, west of Tumut, this tree reached maturity at Penrose State Forest in the NSW Southern Highlands, and after a rigorous selection process by Forestry Corporation to find a perfectly shaped Christmas tree, was selected for its prestigious role.
The five-metre-high radiata pine (Pinus radiata) has been beautifully decorated in time for the regal Christmas reception of NSW Governor, Margaret Beazley.
Forestry Corporation has also supplied a 3.5-metre pine to feature as the Christmas showcase in the drawing room at another historically significant coastal estate, which is Vaucluse House in Sydney’s eastern suburbs, Australia’s first house museum.
The five-metre-high radiata pine (Pinus radiata) in Sydney’s Government House decorated in time for the regal Christmas reception of NSW Governor, Margaret Beazley. Photo: Forestry Corporation.
This tree, which is currently presiding over the many festive workshops taking place at Vaucluse House, is styled with traditional decorations including aromatic and glistening handmade strung-dried citrus slices, paper garlands, ribbon bows, cinnamon bundles, then finished with more paper garlands, ribbon, pinecones and gifts at its base.
Forestry Corporation’s Moss Vale area supervisor Tom Bagnell said it was always a great pleasure for staff to find the perfect Christmas trees for Government House and Vaucluse House.
“These pines will bring Christmas cheer to many, but they also represent the contribution that our pine estates and the NSW timber industry make to building new homes across Australia”.
Forestry Corporation of NSW manages more than 200,000 hectares of pine plantations and an average nine million seedlings are produced and dispatched annually to establish and reestablish plantations.
The plants are individually hand-planted across an area equivalent to about 8000 football fields in locations such as Penrose State Forest, straddling the Hume Highway near Sutton Forest as well as Bathurst, Lithgow, Oberon, Tumbarumba, Bombala, Orange, Walcha and Tumut.
Mr Bagnall said the pine plantations generated enough timber to build 40,000 new homes – that’s the equivalent of the homes in Orange, Bathurst and Oberon.
“Radiata pine harvested from our state forest plantations is used in construction and landscaping and the everyday pulp and paper products that the state relies upon,” Mr Bagnell said.
Every tree that is sustainably harvested in state forests is replanted and over the past five years Forestry Corporation has raised 50 million seedlings in their nurseries.
Radiata pine has been grown in the local Moss Vale area for over a century, with Penrose State Forest established in 1919, making it one of the state’s oldest pine plantations.
Forestry Corporation has grown pine on the site ever since with extensions to the plantation area in the 1960s and 1970s.
The plantation from where these two Christmas pines were selected was replanted in 2018 and those trees will reach maturity as structural timber at an age class of 25 to 30 years.
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