An Analysis of the Street Tree Population of Greater Melbourne at the Beginning of the 21st Century

Stephen Frank; Glenn Waters; Russell Beer; Peter May

doi:10.48044/jauf.2006.021

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Figure 1.
Municipalities of metropolitan Melbourne indicating which have undertaken street tree inventories. Adapted from Department of Infrastructure (2005). No scale shown.

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Table 1.

Details of municipalities.

Council	Population	Area (km²)	Street length (km)	Number of street trees	Tree inventory	Comment
Banyule City Council	118,000	63	613	72,000	Part data
Bayside City Council	90,205	36	420	43,678	Full data
Boroondara City Council	157,000	65	648	62,000	Full data
Brimbank City Council	149,131	123	801	85,000	No data
Cardinia Shire Council	45,083	1,280	1,420	21,000 (est.)	Part data	989 km unsealed roads
Casey City Council	181,599	395	1,117	No data	No data
Darebin City Council	131,000	53	620	46,105	Full data
Frankston City Council	112,062	142	618	43,544	Full data
Glen Eira City Council	117,000	39	460	45,000	Full data
Greater Dandenong City Council	132,000	130	560	15,522	Full data
Hobsons Bay City Council	74,164	66	489	65,000	Full data
Hume City Council	138,424	503	887	41,713	Full data
Kingston City Council	135,251	91	540	28,003	Full data
Knox City Council	141,200	114	204	68,690	Full data
Manningham City Council	112,503	113	710	77,000 (est.)	No data	150 km sealed rural and 60 km unsealed
Maribrynong City Council	61,145	31	302	28,500	Full data
Maroondah City Council	96,000	61	469	48,985	Full data
Melbourne City Council	52,000	37	308	18,592	Full data
Melton Shire Council	39,109	528	659	18,000	No data
Monash City Council	160,862	82	707	106,859	Full data
Moonee Valley City Council	112,307	44	500	42,000	Full data
Moreland City Council	129,677	51	492	62,000	Full data
Mornington Peninsula Shire Council	120,000	720	1,890	70,000 (est.)	No data
Nillumbik Shire Council	57,241	430	865	No data	No data
Port Phillip City Council	73,092	21	245	25,868	Full data
Stonnington City Council	84,300	26	308	32,968	Full data
Whitehorse City Council	142,000	64	650	72,000	Full data
Whittlesea City Council	115,352	487	653	36,000	No data	115 km unsealed
Wyndham City Council	86,525	542	635	30,000 (est.)	No data
Yarra City Council	69,400	20	345	20,243	Full data
Yarra Ranges Shire Council	143,230	2,472	2289	60,000 (est.)	Part data	931 km unsealed
Totals	3,376,862	8,828	21,424	1,386,270*

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Table 2.

The 50 most common taxa in rank order.

Botanical name	Number	Percentage of total	Native/exotic
Queensland brush box (Lophostemon confertus)	61,959	6.9	N
Snow-in-summer (Melaleuca linariifolia)	46,837	5.2	N
Purple-leaf cherry plum (Prunus cerasifera ‘Nigra’)	35,402	3.9	E
Prickly-leaved paperbark (Melaleuca styphelioides)	31,049	3.4	N
Willow bottlebrush (Callistemon salignus)	27,427	3.0	N
London plane (Platanus × acerifolia)	25,870	2.9	E
Yellow gum (Eucalyptus leucoxylon)	20,677	2.3	N
Willow myrtle (Agonis flexuosa)	19,952	2.2	N
Desert ash (Fraxinus angustifolia spp. angustifolia)	19,614	2.2	E
Gum tree (Eucalyptus spp.)	18,099	2.0	N
Weeping bottlebrush (Callistemon viminalis)	17,422	1.9	N
Red-flowering gum (Corymbia ficifolia)	17,411	1.9	N
Pin oak (Quercus palustris)	16,114	1.8	E
Bottlebrush (Callistemon spp.)	15,939	1.8	N
Double-rose Cherry plum (Prunus × blireana)	14,315	1.6	E
Bracelet honey myrtle (Melaleuca armillaris)	14,000	1.5	N
Narrow-leaved peppermint (Eucalyptus nicholii)	13,431	1.5	N
Prunus spp.	12,865	1.4	E
Norfolk Island hibiscus (Lagunaria patersonia)	12,521	1.4	N
Sweet gum (Liquidambar styraciflua)	12,353	1.4	E
Cherry plum (Prunus cerasifera)	11,933	1.3	E
Lilly pilly (Acmena smithii)	11,707	1.3	N
Kanooka, water gum (Tristaniopsis laurina)	10,758	1.2	N
Spotted gum (Corymbia maculata)	10,526	1.2	N
White cedar (Melia azedarach)	10,059	1.1	E
Wallangara white gum (Eucalyptus scoparia)	9,829	1.1	N
Lemon-scented gum (Corymbia citriodora)	8,779	1.0	N
Red ironbark (Eucalyptus sideroxylon)	7,849	0.9	N
Sweet pittosporum (Pittosporum undulatum)	7,672	0.8	N
Silver birch (Betula pendula)	7,633	0.8	E
Smooth-barked apple (Angophora costata)	7,128	0.8	N
Oriental plane (Platanus orientalis)	6,834	0.8	E
Claret ash (Fraxinus angustifolia ssp. oxycarpa ‘Raywood’)	6,336	0.7	E
Plane (Platanus spp.)	5,853	0.6	E
Crimson bottlebrush (Callistemon citrinus)	5,783	0.6	N
Kings Park bottlebrush (Callistemon ‘Kings Park Special’)	5,777	0.6	N
Willow-leaved hakea (Hakea salicifolia [syn. H. saligna])	5,689	0.6	N
Prunus ‘Wrightii’	5,678	0.6	E
Silky oak (Grevillea robusta)	5,061	0.6	N
Cootamundra wattle (Acacia baileyana)	5,056	0.6	N
Unknown species	5,016	0.6	—
Callery’s pear (Pyrus calleryana)	5,001	0.6	E
Elm (Ulmus spp.)	4,961	0.5	E
Blackwood (Acacia melanoxylon)	4,857	0.5	N
Oleander (Nerium oleander)	4,801	0.5	E
Hakea (Hakea spp.)	4,301	0.5	N
Christmas berry (Photinia × fraseri ‘Robusta’)	4,217	0.5	E
Camphor laurel (Cinnamomum camphora)	4,071	0.5	E
Totals	646,422	71.60

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Table 3.
Origin of species.
Origin Number of taxa Percentage
Exotic broadleaf 600 53
Australian native broadleaf 439 39
Exotic conifer 75 7
Australian native conifer 12 1
Totals 1,126 100

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Table 4.

Rank order of families with more than 100 individuals.

Family	No. of genera	Percentage total genus	Number of individuals	Percentage total individuals
Myrtaceae	28	8.4	467,282	52.0
Rosaceae	15	4.5	110,712	12.3
Oleaceae	7	2.1	41,156	4.6
Platanaceae	1	0.3	40,728	4.5
Mimosaceae	3	0.9	30,126	3.3
Proteaceae	13	3.9	24,501	2.7
Fagaceae	4	1.2	23,692	2.6
Ulmaceae	3	0.9	19,890	2.2
Pittosporaceae	4	1.2	15,101	1.7
Malvaceae	7	2.1	14,044	1.6
Hamamelidaceae	3	0.9	12,991	1.4
Betulaceae	2	0.6	12,679	1.4
Cupressaceae	8	2.4	10,350	1.2
Meliaceae	2	0.6	10,085	1.1
Casuarinaceae	2	0.6	9,026	1.0
Aceraceae	1	0.3	6,963	0.8
Fabaceae	20	6.0	6,087	0.7
Apocynaceae	2	0.6	4,804	0.5
Caesalpiniaceae	6	1.8	4,598	0.5
Lauraceae	3	0.9	4,446	0.5
Salicaceae	2	0.6	4,324	0.5
Bignoniaceae	4	1.2	3,755	0.4
Moraceae	3	0.9	2,907	0.3
Pinaceae	7	2.1	2,324	0.3
Anacardiaceae	5	1.5	2,053	0.2
Sterculiaceae	2	0.6	2,032	0.2
Arecaceae	13	3.9	1,933	0.2
Lythraceae	1	0.3	1,613	0.2
Sapindaceae	4	1.2	1,007	0.1
Totals	175	52.50	891,209	99.00

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Table 5.

Major tree genera based on species/variety diversity.

Genus	Number of taxa/cultivars	Percentage of taxa	Number of individuals
Eucalyptus spp.	141	13	121,320
Acacia spp.	49	4	29,895
Melaleuca spp.	30	3	103,456
Grevillea spp.	30	3	6,651
Prunus spp.	26	2	86,227
Callistemon spp.	21	2	78,100
Acer spp.	20	2	6,963
Quercus spp.	18	2	23,436
Hakea spp.	17	2	14,698
Fraxinus spp.	13	1	36,502
Cupressus spp.	13	1	4,978
Malus spp.	13	1	3,453
Totals	391	36	515,679