In March 1999 a consortium of Queensland Forestry Research Institute and Birkdale Nursery were selected as the successful partners for the future commercialisation of the Wollemi Pine on behalf of the Royal Botanic Gardens Sydney and the New South Wales National Parks and Wildlife Service.

The consortium and the Royal Botanic Gardens are currently undertaking a major propagation program to increase the numbers of the Pine to firstly ensure there long term survival and secondly to produce viable quantities for commercial release.

Due to the small in-situ population of the Wollemi Pine it is expected that commercially viable quantities will not be reached until 2005.

Further information on the venture can be obtained from the consortium partners or from The Business Services Manager, Royal Botanic Gardens, Mrs Macquaries Road, Sydney 2000 Australia http://www.birkdaleinternational.com/cdromframe.htm

Some background information about the pine. lindyl@ip.net.au

WHAT’S IT LOOK LIKE?
The Wollemi Pine (Wollemia nobilis) is a conifer that grows to a height of 35 metres with a trunk diameter of over one metre. The leaves vary from bright lime green when young to yellow-green as they mature. Its bark is particularly unusual, looking very much like bubbling chocolate and is quite different from the bark of other related species.

RELATIVES
The Wollemi Pine’s closest living relatives are the Norfolk Island Pine, Bunya Bunya Pine, Hoop Pine, Monkey Puzzle Pine and Kauri Pine, all members of the family Araucariaceae.

SEX
Like its closest living relatives, the Wollemi Pine is bisexual with both female and male reproductive cones on the same tree. The male and female cones are borne on separate branches at the very tips. The male cones are lower down the tree on older branches. The seeds are winged.

HOW WAS IT FOUND?
Like many notable finds, the Pines were discovered by chance. In August 1994, David Noble, a NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service officer, was bushwalking in the Wollemi National Park when he saw a grove of trees that he did not recognise immediately.

HOW OLD ARE THE PINES?
Nobody really knows, but some of the Pines may have been around before the Roman Empire. The older Wollemi Pines have multiple trunks of different ages and, in many cases, the original trunk is long gone. Scientists estimate that some of the trees may be between 500 and 1000 years old.

WHERE DOES IT GROW?
Two small groves of seedlings and mature trees occur about 150 kilometres north-west of Sydney, within the boundaries of the Wollemi National Park. The Park contains the largest wilderness in New South Wales. It is a very rugged mountainous region of gorges, cliffs and undisturbed forest. The Pines are growing on wet ledges in a deep, sheltered rainforest gorge.

WHY IS IT SO IMPORTANT?
The Wollemi Pine is a ‘living fossil’. Its discovery is particularly significant since it belongs to a new genus of plants previously known only as fossils that date back to the age of dinosaurs, some 150 million years ago. It is one of the world’s rarest species with only 38 adult trees known in two small stands.
The discovery of the Wollemi Pine emphasises that conservation areas are extremely valuable in the preservation of all plants and animals, especially endangered species. The Pine has already yielded the known anti-cancer chemical taxol, previously associated mainly with Yew trees from the Northern Hemisphere. Who knows what other extraordinary plants and animals – and cures – are still waiting to be discovered?