In the presence of giants

Reflections from the Tasmanian wilderness

By Geoffrey Weir

There were no words … It was breathtaking, overwhelming, it left me feeling insignificant. It was everything I just described and more. Long have I toiled with describing the emotions that were felt that day. No single word could accurately describe it. Should something so profoundly moving and humbling be reduced to just one word? The list of words that could describe that day would far outnumber the word count of this piece. Right now, the world is affixed to words such as ‘bussin’ and ‘slay’, so for the time being, a single word to describe this experience can wait until the disease of ‘TikTok’ brain has passed. Still, I persist in finding the word. Someday.

That day, giants stood tall. Overwhelming. I found myself questioning the passage of time as my eye travelled up, and up, and up. My mind was ablaze with thoughts of what these living skyscraper organisms may have seen.

Eucalyptus regnans, ‘Giant Ash’ or ‘Swamp Gum’, the tallest flowering plant in the world. The word ‘regnans’ is Latin, meaning to rule or reign, an apt name given its nature. It is the monarch of flowering plants, ruling over everything with its awe-inspiring height, including us. For all of man’s greed during the settling of mainland Australia, and the breathtakingly beautiful wilderness of Tasmania, we are truly blessed to still have these giants of the forest with us.

Records and data indicate these trees are 500-600 years old. Ancient witnesses to the Renaissance, the Age of Exploration, the scientific and industrial revolutions, two world wars, 13 British monarchs, and now the digital revolution, our most advanced era, and, some might say, the cause of humanity’s de-evolution. Leonardo Da Vinci was changing the world when these beings were in their infancy, and they were already 200 years old when Galileo was discovering the moons of Jupiter. They tower over the forests they occupy, reigning supreme.

Tasmania boasts an incredible number of these specimens exceeding 80 metres in height, with the champion of them all being ‘Centurion’, at 100 metres. I could not visit ‘Centurion’, but I visited many other giants at Mount Field and the Styx River Big Tree Conservation Area, where I was at a loss for words. In their presence, I was immediately humbled, felt insignificant, but connected to them through the surrounding earth. Feeling something. Their presence? 

It was a five-day trip with the love of my life to disconnect from the adult responsibilities we all have, to relax, reset and prepare myself for the upcoming growing season and craziness that comes with working in this industry. We sought and found a connection stronger than we predicted. It was not just a connection with each other, but a shared connection with something bigger than us, both literally and figuratively. It has ended with me needing to put pen to paper, to communicate something that is important to me, something that should be important to all of us. These trees are our life-force, and we need to remember and respect them. For they endure.

Ironically, all these words are needed for me to explain that there are no words to express what I felt standing in the presence of the giants of the forest, but I do know what I felt was very personal.

Geoffrey Weir

Leeton Lawn & Garden Care