The Fraser Avenue Red Flowering Gum

A hundred scarlet-flowering gums went into Fraser Avenue on 29 September 1929. This is the only one left. They were planted for Western Australia's centenary by the Centenary Committee, the Kings Park Board and assorted dignitaries, led by A. Lovekin MLA, and every planter was handed an inscribed silver trowel for the occasion. Then patch canker went through the avenue in the 1930s and took most of them, along with much of the original 1898 planting made for Queen Victoria's jubilee. By 1938 the gaps had been filled with lemon-scented gums, which are the tall pale trunks that give Fraser Avenue its look today. The survivor stands near the main entrance and does not announce itself: 11 metres tall, two metres through the trunk, in excellent condition when the National Trust measured it in 2014. Ninety-seven years old, from a documented planting date rather than a guess. In high summer it does the thing its species is named for and covers itself in scarlet flower heads, which is when a modest tree becomes the reason people stop walking. The register places it north-east of the main Fraser Avenue entrance rather than at a fixed point, so our pin is good to the area and not to the trunk. Come in January or February and you will not need the pin.