Tree of Knowledge

The Tree of Knowledge was a eucalyptus papuna (Ghost Gum) which grew outside the Railway Station on Oak Street Barcaldine, until May 2006 when it was poisoned by an unknown culprit; from which it sadly did not recover. The Tree of Knowledge grew in this position for an estimated 200 years and earned its place in history, as the headquarters of the Great Shearers Strike of 1891 and the reputed birth place of the labour movement in Australia.

 

Fortuitously, prior to its demise, cuttings were taken from the tree and propagated.  The results produced a sapling fondly named the “Young-Un”, planted in 2005 at the Australian Workers Heritage Centre; where it continues to thrive today.

 

During The Great Shearer's Strike of 1891, strike meetings in Barcaldine were often held in the shade of a ghost gum in the town’s main street - which came to be known as the Tree of Knowledge.

 

Enhance..... your journey of reflection and discover the Australian Workers Heritage Centre - where the Australian worker and their proud contribution is celebrated.

 

Here….. exhibits will inform and highlight the linkages and history behind the Tree of Knowledge story.

 

Visit….  The Shearers’ Hall, an exhibition which informs of the history of the Great Shearers’ Strike of 1891 and where Australia’s most famous tree lives on through The “Young–Un”, the only direct offspring of the heritage listed Tree of Knowledge; ensuring this symbolic icon of our national working history, is secure for future generations of Australians.

 

The Tree of Knowledge is listed on the State Heritage Register as well as being one of only 74 Nationally Listed Icons, right along with the Sydney Opera House and the Great Barrier Reef. 

 

The Tree of Knowledge commemorates a milestone in the history of Australian democracy and an architecturally designed memorial was erected on the site and opened on May 2nd, 2009.  

 

The memorial has been designed to represent the tree in an abstract form (incorporating a preserved part of the trunk of the former tree as the trunk). The Memorial is essentially a 'cube' compromised of recycled timber batons suspended from a glass covered roof structure.  The (approximately 3,500) batons recreate the canopy of the original tree as it stood in its prime during the 1891 Shearers' Strike. The best view of the tree and the Memorial is at night when it is beautifully lit by special lighting.

 

The tree now serves as an important place to meet and reflect, and in celebrating its importance in Australian history, remembers those who fought for better working conditions.

 

The formation of the Australian Labor Party also has its roots under the great tree as a result of events following the 1891 strike.

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The Tree of Knowledge, so named because of all that had passed beneath its branches, still stands as one of Australia’s most significant monuments to its proud workers.