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St Ives Boundary Tree
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The Boundary Tree, St Ives
The Boundary Tree is a large Sydney red gum, Angophora costata, standing on the eastern side of Mona Vale Road, St Ives, adjacent to the Wildflower Garden. It is opposite a trig station near the area known as First Rocks. This tree was referred to in an early census of indigenous plants, conducted during the 1880s, as a magnificent specimen of a large tree.
In 1917, historian PW Gledhill wrote:
The large tree on Gordon Road, in the vicinity of the 'First Rocks' within the Parish of Manly Cove, and the Trig Station nearby named 'Thorn' within the Parish of Gordon, are on the ridge dividing the watershed on the south by Middle Harbour, flowing into Sydney harbour, and on the north with Cowan Creek, that flows into Broken Bay.
At the site of this magnificent tree, three parishes converge, viz.: Manly Cove, Broken Bay, Gordon, and the tree became known as the 'Boundary Tree'. A temporary terminal monument was placed near the tree. Some distance to the east a cairn was built in 1882, and a trig station was observed there in 1883 by J. Brooks and was called 'Boundary'.
References
Ku-ring-gai Historical Society, Ku-ring-gai: a collection of early photographs in the possession of the Society, Gordon, 1973