There’s an ancient cousin of the eucalypts, Stockwellia quadrifida, found only on Queensland’s highest mountain, Bartle Frere. Podocarpus dispermus, a Gondwanan conifer whose bright red berries are spread by cassowaries and musky rat-kangaroos. And Ficus crassipes, a banana fig that starts life as a seedling in the rainforest canopy then sends its roots cascading to the ground.
They’re among 500 mature trees at far north Queensland’s Atherton Arboretum, a CSIRO-owned haven to rare species from the nearby wet tropics, Cape York, the Gulf of Carpentaria and the Northern Territory.
