Description
Although named Avenue Road, this residential street retains a single row plantation within the road pavement rather than an avenue of trees.
This rainforest margin species is highly adaptable under harsh urban conditions and will tolerate drought as well as regular pruning/ alignment for overhead power-lines and other services. The Brush Box may achieve massive proportions under optimum conditions but tends to be much smaller in a suburban setting.
Significance
This row planting of native Brush Box (Lophostemon confertus) has local group significance in terms of visual, historical and social values. Although not particularly large in stature, it is believed that these trees may date from the 1910-1920’s.
They are relatively common species in metropolitan Sydney, this type and age of row planting within the road carriageway is however relatively rare in the City of Sydney LGA. They also represent some of the earliest street tree planting in Glebe.
Historical notes
During the Federation period, Brush Box became the preferred street tree of the new garden suburbs of Sydney’s inner west (eg. Haberfield, 1902 & Burwood, 1903) (Rintoul, J., Gardens of Heritage Significance, National Trust of Australia (NSW), 1996). The popularity of Brush Box as a street tree continued throughout the Inter-War period (c. 1915-1940) and much of the Post-War period (1940-1960’s).
These trees are supportive of the historic character of local houses in this street and the Glebe area (refer to listing for St Scholastica’s College – 4 Avenue Road). Aerial photos from 1943 show this street with an extremely consistent and established one side avenue of trees. Importantly it was one of the earliest street tree plantings in Glebe, with most other streets without any coherent or planned tree planting. They most likely date from c.1910-1920 based on the size of the trees in 1943.
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