The establishment of a new retail garden centre at Springfield Lakes had been a long term goal for my business partner and I.

The Queensland Bottle Tree (Brachychiton rupestris) had long been one of my favourite trees and it was this factor more than any other that resulted us naming the garden centre as "The Bottle Tree at Springfield Lakes".

Having christened the business with this name, it was obvious to be credible we would need a real tree! The garden centre was being constructed on a green field site so transplanting a tree was the only option.

I had a ready source of mature bottle trees from a property near Bell that is owned by my brother.

While my brother was willing to give us as many trees as we wanted, it soon became apparent that whether we were actually allowed to relocate them under the prevailing State Government was difficult to establish.

The information provided by various State Government Departments on the issue was conflicting and confusing.

While discussing the matter with the various Government and researching the issue further, I became aware of The Ace of Spades in Toowoomba.

I contacted Russell from Ace of Spades to discuss the issue further and his knowledge of both arboreal matters, the legislative requirements and the logistics involved in relocating trees was impressive from the start.

To cut a long story short, Russell was able to offer us a Bottle Tree that he had purchased privately and therefore did not require a permit or any other type of government approval in order to be relocated.

After viewing some pictures that had been emailed me by Russell, we decided to go ahead. The logistics of the relocation then had to be organised.

The site where the tree was to be planted presented a number of challenges.

Firstly, the site had been extensively excavated and basically the garden centre was being established on a base of sandstone. There was no topsoil remaining whatsoever.

Secondly, we are tenants on the garden centre site and therefore were not able to control the construction program. Access to the planting site was steadily being obstructed by various items prior to us being able to get the tree to the site.

Ideally, we planned to use a Franna crane to "walk" the tree to the planting hole however due to access problems, it seemed that we would have to use a boom crane.

A hole with a diameter of approximately 3 metres had been dug into the surrounding sandstone. Given the sandstone surrounds, I was concerned about drainage and that the hole may become a "swimming pool" in the event of a big rain.

Given the circumstances however there was little we could do but press on.

After being given the delivery date by Ace of Spades, our tree arrived on the back of a body truck having made the trip from the Ace of Spades yard in Toowoomba.

As circumstances transpired and after a false start with a 50 tonne boom crane, a Franna crane was able to be used to walk the tree to the planting hole.

At this stage of the operation, the expertise of Ace of Spades became more apparent.

Because of the shape of both the trunk and the crown of the tree, planting it was not as simple as plonking it in the hole.  One side of the tree had had a few branches removed and as a result there was a bit of a hole in the canopy.

The tree had to be orientated correctly so that it's "best side" was going to be presented to where most people would see it.

Although the changes and instructions to the crane driver were subtle, the tree was manoeuvred so that the optimal orientation was achieved.

The tree has been planted now for in excess of two months and is making new growth. It is very much a focal point of the garden centre and has attracted much comment and enquiry.

One of our objectives at the Garden Centre is to get people considering the use of mature trees as major components of their landscaping projects.

The cost of relocating a feature tree can be a relatively small proportion of the total budget of some residential landscaping projects.

Having a feature tree such as our Brachychiton makes this point a whole lot easier to argue!

The professionalism of Ace of Spades meant the whole project was achieved with a minimum of fuss and with an excellent outcome.
 

 

 

 

Springfield Lakes Garden Centre