School's historic tree celebrated

With a canopy that spans more than 20 metres, this Port Jackson fig tree has had a long time to grow – approximately 150 years, if not more.

It stands proudly in front of the administration building on the grounds of St Peter’s Woodlands School at Glenelg, and now bears a Tree of the Month medallion, thanks to the nomination by former student Sue Fuller.

Sue and school principal Helen Finlay adorned the tree with the medallion which will stay in place for the month of September.

Sue attended the school when it was Woodlands Church of England Girls Grammar School during the 1950s and 60s and said the tree was a meeting place back then, as it is now.

Historical photos of the school grounds show the tree standing tall and proud in the 1920s.

Richard and Emma Smith were the original owners of Woodlands House – which is the ground level of the current administration building - which was built in approximately the 1860s.

Their children gifted the house and land in 1923 to be turned into a school.

Nominate your favourite Holdfast Bay tree via the link below, and explore our gallery of past Trees of the Month, which started in April 2020.