A photograph made this tree famous, and then the photograph named it. In May 1937 Harold Cazneaux, camping in the Flinders with his wife and son, pointed a camera at a river red gum standing by itself on a flat, dry plateau. He called the picture The Spirit of Endurance, it brought him international recognition, and the gum has been the Cazneaux Tree ever since. The naming is credited to George Hunt, the last pastoral leaseholder of Wilpena Station. It earns the billing. The trunk runs 11.4 metres around at the base, and the state gazetteer puts the tree at 29 metres tall, though a recent parks description calls it nearer 25. Cazneaux wrote that the passing years had left it "scarred and marked by the elements" and that, "unconquered, it speaks to us of a Spirit of Endurance". The scarring he described is the tree's own record of storm, fire and water on a plateau with no shelter on it. The National Trust of South Australia lists it as significant tree number 239, for its aesthetic quality alone. Cazneaux's grandson, the entrepreneur Dick Smith, paid for the plaque placed here in 1991, and since 2025 an easy 90 minute trail runs out to it from Flinders Ranges Way. Nobody has ever put an age to it. If you know of a measurement, tell us.
The line is our estimate of how much there is to see, not a measurement. Typical for this species where this tree stands; exact weeks shift with the year.
Ikara-Flinders Ranges National Park, west side of Flinders Ranges Way, ~3km north-east of Wilpena Pound Resort, South AustraliaYou can recognise it by its heavily scarred trunk, 11.4m round at the base, storm- and fire-marked, standing alone on a bare plateau with a 1991 plaque nearby. It stands beside the Spirit of Endurance Trail, off Flinders Ranges Way.
Free. Inside Ikara-Flinders Ranges National Park, reached via the Spirit of Endurance Trail (a 90-minute, Grade 2, no-experience-needed walking trail opened as an interpretive trail, easily accessible from Flinders Ranges Way). An SA National Parks entry pass may be required for vehicle entry to the park itself; the walk and the tree carry no separate fee.
No public transport; self-drive via Flinders Ranges Way. Nearest services at Wilpena Pound Resort, ~3km away; nearest town Hawker is roughly 60km south.
Sources
Where the facts on this page come from.
- In the official register: National Trust of South Australia Register of Significant Trees, no. 239
- en.wikipedia.org
- environment.sa.gov.au
- dulkeith.net.au