What Barcaldine is known for
Barcaldine is a Central West Queensland town on Iningai Country, in semi-arid grasslands about 520 km west of Rockhampton, with 1,540 residents at the 2021 census. It is known for the Tree of Knowledge, a roughly 200 year old ghost gum under which the 1891 shearers’ strike organised, and for the memorial the town built after the tree was found poisoned in 2006.
A sheep station's name, a strike, and a tree
Barcaldine takes its name from Barcaldine Downs sheep station, established in 1863 by Donald Charles Cameron, named for his family property in Ayrshire, Scotland. The first town lots sold in 1885, and the railway arrived on 8 November 1886. In front of the railway station stood a ghost gum known in the 1880s as the Hallelujah Tree, because the local Salvation Army band gathered beneath it.
The 1891 shearers’ strike ran from February to May. On 1 May, Barcaldine held one of the first May Day marches in the world: 1,340 men, 618 of them mounted, by the Sydney Morning Herald’s count. Thousands of armed soldiers arrested strike leaders; thirteen were convicted of sedition and conspiracy and jailed for three years on St Helena Island, and three later became Labor MPs. In 1892 the manifesto that founded the Labor Party in Queensland was read out at the tree’s foot.
Found poisoned in 2006, and rebuilt around the loss
The tree joined the Queensland Heritage Register in 1992 and the National Heritage List in January 2006. In April 2006 it was found poisoned with glyphosate, and an arborist declared it dead that October. The Australian Labor Party offered a A$10,000 reward for information on the poisoning, but no one was ever named or charged.
The trunk was removed in 2007, and its preserved remains returned to Barcaldine in 2009 as the centrepiece of a new memorial, commissioned by Barcaldine Regional Council from m3architecture and Brian Hooper Architect. Locals called the rising box shaped structure The Black Box; the architects meant its dark shape to stand for the tree’s death. The memorial, costing about A$5 million, was opened by Queensland Premier Anna Bligh on 2 May 2009.
A box of timber, and a rise in visitors
The memorial holds more than 3,600 suspended timber pieces above a glass floor that reveals the tree’s roots, with adjacent parking removed so visitors must walk into town. It won the 2010 Lachlan Macquarie Award for Heritage Architecture and the 2009 Australian Timber Design Awards prize. Lit at night to look as if the tree still lives, entry is free.
Barcaldine Regional Council estimates visitors stopping in town are up at least 300 percent since the memorial and The Globe, a former hotel now the town’s visitor centre, were completed.
Questions people ask about Barcaldine
Why is Barcaldine famous?
Barcaldine is famous for the Tree of Knowledge, a ghost gum under which the 1891 shearers' strike organised and the Queensland Labor Party's founding manifesto was read in 1892. After the tree was found poisoned in 2006, the town built a memorial around its preserved trunk.
What happened to the original Tree of Knowledge?
The roughly 200 year old ghost gum was found poisoned with glyphosate in April 2006 and declared dead that October. No one was ever named or charged, despite a reward offered by the Australian Labor Party. Its trunk was removed in 2007 and later preserved in a memorial.
What is the Tree of Knowledge Memorial?
It is a memorial built around the preserved trunk of the original tree, holding more than 3,600 suspended timber pieces over a glass floor that shows the roots. Opened by Queensland Premier Anna Bligh in 2009, it cost about A$5 million and is free to enter.
What was the 1891 shearers' strike?
A strike by Queensland shearers that ran from February to May 1891. On 1 May, Barcaldine held one of the first May Day marches in the world, and thirteen strike leaders were later convicted and jailed. The strike failed, but its manifesto founded the Labor Party in Queensland the next year.