By Violet Li
Community association Friends of the Tulliallan Elms presented a distinctive way to support Clean Up Australia Day on Sunday 3 March, combining tree conservation education and environmental protection.
About 28 community members, including children, joined the activities at 16 Tulliallan Bvd in Cranbourne North in the shades of a lush English elm avenue with 51 trees down each side that were planted in two stages since 1900.
Served as the inaugural Quarterly Friends Gathering, the day started with participants labelling the elm trees with unique tree names given by the kids of the Tulliallan Primary School back in 2019.
“We spoke to the principal and the kids back in 2019. I asked them to bring the kids to the trees, look at the trees, ask them to imagine the personality of the trees, and give trees names,” president Raavenan Jayaraman recalled.
“One tree was a little bit tilting to the side, so kids named it Tilted Tower.
“That was 2019, and then Covid came, so we didn’t do anything about it. What we did was we printed the name of the trees.”
The unfinished project pre-Covid finally came to a satisfactory full stop in 2024.
“The first we did that way was we tied a jute string around the tree with the name hanging,” Mr Jayaraman said.
“When people go for a walk, they can see the name of the tree and try to connect with whichever tree they like.”
Participants then inspected the trees’ health based on training given by Mr Jayaraman and a checklist and wrapped up the day picking up litter around the area and then sitting down for a beautiful brunch under the trees.
A large amount of rubbish was collected, including fast food packages and water bottles.
Formed in 2018, the Friends of the Tulliallan Elms is a group of neighbourhood volunteers whose main goal is to promote interest, support, and involvement in the preservation, care, and maintenance of the heritage-listed avenue of Elms trees in the Tulliallan estate.
The next Quarterly Friends Gathering will be held in June.
