Wangal Park Tree Hunt
Come and visit Wangal Park and join the Burwood Tree Hunt! Find tagged trees in Wangal Park and get to know our special tree friends! Make sure to scan the QR code for more information about your new friend.
Please be careful if leaving the main path as the ground may be uneven. Make sure you are wearing closed walking shoes whilst you are in the park conducting the tree hunt.
Sydney Golden Wattle
Acacia longifolia
How to spot it: Smooth, greyish bark and long, flat, leathery phyllodes (that's the "leaf" the fun fact mentions) with a few clear parallel veins running along each one.
What it offers:
Flowering: Bright yellow, rod-shaped flower spikes that bloom from early winter through early spring
Parramatta Wattle
Acacia parramattensis
How to spot it: Fine, fern-like, feathery compound leaves; bark ranges from greenish-black to dark brown and can be smooth or with cracks.
What it offers: Like other wattles, it's a nitrogen fixer, meaning it naturally enriches the soil around it, helping other plants nearby to thrive. It's also widely used in bushland regeneration projects for this reason.
Flowering: Yellow pom-pom flowers bloom from November to February
Black She-oak
Allocasuarina littoralis
How to spot it: What looks like fine pine needles are actually branchlets, not true leaves; the real leaves are tiny scale-like teeth arranged in whorls around each joint. Bark is rough and grey-brown. Male and female flowers usually grow on separate trees, males have brownish flower spikes, females have tiny bright red flowers.
What it offers: The seeds are a preferred food source for the endangered Glossy Black-Cockatoo
Spotted Gum
Corymbia maculata
How to spot it: Smooth bark that sheds in summer, leaving a mottled, camouflage-like pattern of cream, grey, and brown. Look up and you might find habitat hollows in its trunk and branches.
What it offers: Hollows become nesting sites for possums, gliders, and hollow-nesting birds. The leaves are also a favourite food of koalas.
Flowering: Small, fragrant white flowers from autumn through winter.
Blueberry Ash
Elaeocarpus reticulatus
How to spot it: The species name reticulatus means "net-like", referring to the fine, netted vein pattern visible on the glossy, lance-shaped leaves.
What it offers: Its blue fruit draws a wide range of native birds like the Crimson Rosella.
Flowering: Small pink flowers come out from October to January
Tallowwood
Eucalyptus microcorys
How to spot it: Soft, stringy, fibrous bark in dark brown to red-brown, often peeling to reveal a bright orange layer underneath.
What it offers: As with many eucalypts, mature tallowwoods develop hollows that become crucial nesting sites for possums, gliders, and parrots.
Good to know: The species name microcorys means "small helmet", a reference to the tiny cap that covers each flower bud before it opens.
Grey Gum
Eucalyptus punctata
How to spot it: Bark sheds in patches, revealing a coppery colour underneath that fades to grey over time, giving the trunk a multi-toned look. Small white flowers appear in late winter.
What it offers: Nectar is appreciated by bees, birds and the grey-headed flying foxes.
Good to know: Grey gums can regrow from the base and branches after bushfire, and can live for more than a hundred years.
Jacaranda
Jacaranda mimosifolia
How to spot it: Fine, feathery, fern-like leaves; grey-brown bark. It's deciduous, so it drops its leaves in winter before flowering.
What it offers: Nectar-rich flowers attract bees and butterflies, even though this species isn't native to Australia.
Flowering: Purple flowers come out from October to December.
Macadamia
Macadamia integrifolia
How to spot it: Leaves grow in whorls around the stem; long, drooping clusters of small, pale, fragrant flowers appear in spring.
What it offers: Macadamia is one of only four macadamia species native to Australia, all naturally found in rainforest margins of NSW and Queensland. The flowers are pollinated mainly by bees, including Australia's own native stingless bees.
Good to know: The genus is named after John Macadam, a 19th-century Melbourne-based chemist.
Paperbark
Melaleuca quinquenervia
How to spot it: The bark looks like peeling paper all over the trunk of the tree
What it offers: It naturally grows in swamps, estuaries, and along waterways. The thick bark provides shelter for insects and small creatures, and the dense canopy provides nesting cover for small birds.
Flowering: Creamy white brush flowers come out in autumn (March to July).
Turpentine
Syncarpia glomulifera
How to spot it: Leaves grow in whorl-like groups of four at the branch tips; bark is thick, fibrous, and deeply furrowed, in brown to reddish-brown tones.
What it offers: The nectar-rich flowers draw flying foxes as well as birds and bees. As the trees age, they develop hollows used by many animals for shelter and breeding.
Good to know: The timber's natural resistance to termites and marine borers made it a prized choice for wharves and piers.