Melburnians who adore our historic and fantastical English elms will no doubt be interested in sharing a little secret. So here goes...
They are not English.
![Illustration: Andrew Dyson](/web/20170105084441im_/http://www.theage.com.au/content/dam/images/g/t/l/e/7/j/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gtchi1.png/1483506750001.jpg)
They are Italian.
Scientists have traced the date of their first appearance in Britain to roughly 2000 years ago. The Romans arrived there with the elms, probably for the purposes of training vines in vineyards and using their leaves as a kind of hay. The strong resistance of elms to rot also meant that their hollowed logs could be used as pipes for irrigation.
![Elms in Linlithgow Avenue.](/web/20170105084441im_/http://www.theage.com.au/content/dam/images/g/r/9/r/h/i/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gtchi1.png/1483425884921.jpg)
So resilient are elms, in fact, that in ancient European mythology trees of the Ulmus variety are associated with both the afterlife and origins of humankind. When leaders were killed during the Trojan War, nymphs were said to have planted elms on the burial mounds. In recent centuries, elms were typically planted in European cities to celebrate the birth of a republic or a democracy following a revolution.
Once established in England, the elms were regularly harvested. Their timber was used to make piers, jetties and lock gates. The tendency of the wood to shrink when dried meant that it was mostly ill-suited for cabinetmaking and furniture.
More well known to Melburnians, perhaps, is the devastation of English elms in Europe and North America, brought about by the dreaded Dutch elm disease. All English elms share the DNA of a single genetic tree, and cannot be grown from a seed due to their sterility. Instead, new trees sprout from roots and suckers. Scientists tell us that this was part of the reason why the disease was so rife, and why it spread so efficiently.
Due to our quarantine laws and our geographical isolation, Melbourne has some of the best remaining specimens of English elms in the world. And, in many inner-city gardens and parks, elms provide a habitat for native fauna. Lorikeets and grass parrots are particularly fond of nesting in the the hollows that form where branches have either fallen or been removed.
Behind the scenes, many of Melbourne's more serious bonsai growers are constantly fussing over what are probably the best miniature English elms in the world. The people's choice award at this year's Victorian Bonsai Society show went to a magnificent example of one.
If all of this makes you even more concerned about the plans of the government to savage the elms of inner Melbourne, then so it should. And you had better believe it, 2017 is shaping up to be a bad year for English elms.
Take, for example, the Melbourne City Council and the University of Melbourne's plans for University Square, the grand park diagonally opposite the recently obliterated Corkman Hotel. More than 50 mature English elms are soon to be removed. The plan is to make a giant empty lawn where a charming shady lawn already exists.
Lord Mayor Robert Doyle described the square as hostile, and forbidding, and full of declining elms. And yet, elms are understood to reach maturity at about 150 years of age, and to survive comfortably for up to 300 years. The council assessment has determined that of 53 trees, 18 are to go now, another 23 within five years, and the remaining 12 within 10 years.
For their assessment, the council used a "useful life expectancy" approach to determine the health of the trees – but people who have been around or worked with elms for a long time will argue that the trees are not in "advanced" decline. The assessment took place two years ago, and not enough seems to be known about either the species of tree or its potential to survive and flourish if carefully maintained. With the visionary construction of the colossal subterranean water tank east of University Square in Lincoln Square, there is every reason to believe that a responsible council could keep the presently healthy elms looking beautiful well into the next century.
The case for saving the elms is only strengthened by the Melbourne City Council's Community Engagement Study, which found that the primary concern of participants in the study was the removal of the trees. As it happens, the University of Melbourne, which owns all the properties surrounding the square, are keen to remove the elms, claiming that the loss will be offset by planting countless native trees on the square's perimeter, where the roads will be removed.
But this slow-growing native vision, as set out in the MCC's Masterplan, makes little sense. Well before the elms were planted at the site, Wurundjeri people enjoyed the benefits that came from being able to look out over the swamps of Naarm – which is now the CBD. Then, the landscape was wild grasslands and she-oak wilderness. While the Doyle 'n' Davis barren-to-beautiful redesign of the square features a ring of native trees, it will be no more indigenous than what is already there.
The Grattan Street end of the park is another story. Designed and planted by the university and the council in the past decade, it is considered a textbook case of failed horticulture.
If Victoria really values its identity as the Garden State, then we must become better informed gardeners and custodians of our public spaces. If we do not take a more active interest in their green delights, big business will ride roughshod over local interests.
So, if you're in the city this summer, why not check out both ends of University Square. Walk or sit beneath the English (sorry, I mean Italian) elms. And then be sure to let the ever-responsive MCC know what you think.
Jefferson Kinsman lectures at the Melbourne Graduate School of Education.
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