What is the oldest tree in Hobart?
The oldest trees in Hobart with a documented date are the two giant sequoias on the entrance drive of the Royal Tasmanian Botanical Gardens, planted in 1879 and so 147 years old, which for a species that lives past three thousand years is barely a start. The National Trust confirms the date. The Douglas fir deeper in the same gardens follows at 1894. Both are free to visit inside the gardens, which open daily and keep seasonal hours.
Hobart's City Significant Tree Register is a planning instrument rather than a heritage list, which shapes what can be said here. It records species, a per-tree coordinate and a planning reference, and it gives a reason for listing rather than an age, so most of these trees carry no date at all and this page leaves those blank instead of estimating. Two entries cover more than one trunk, because the register itself groups them as a single significance record: three dawn redwoods about twenty metres apart on Elizabeth Street, and a pair of sequoias at the gardens. Where a date does exist it comes from the National Trust rather than the register. Two further register trees are absent on purpose: one sits in the grounds of Government House, open only on scheduled days, and one in a private school. Where a tree's condition is disputed between assessments, as at the cathedral, the disagreement is in that tree's own story rather than resolved quietly.
See more themed collections of remarkable trees.