Australia is not usually known for all it’s trees, so I thought I’share some thoughts.

“Australia has 149.4 million hectares of forests comprising 147.4 million hectares of native forests and 2 million hectares of plantations. These forests cover about 21 per cent of the continent. This is about 8 hectares of forest for each Australian, one of the highest areas of forest per person in the world. The world average is less than 0.6 hectares of forest per person. Australia has about 4 per cent of the world’s forest.”

Not bad for a continent which is mostly flat dry desert, huh?

The cities in Australia though, have far fewer trees than in the forests. One would think.  Living in Adelaide at times you’d have to remind yourself that it is, a city with 1.2 million odd people living and working.  When looking from atop of any one of the surrounding Adelaide hills, all you see is green with flashes of roof colour peeping though between the foilage.  The city centre is surrounded by parklands, as well as other numerous stretches of green splashed randomly about the metro area.

My home has 20+ trees, ranging from a Weeping Japanese Maple,  to a few fruit trees, a range of natives, to the 30 metre River Red Gum.  This is in addition to all the various shrubs I also have in my garden.  Most other properties in Adelaide would have more trees and greenery than me.

Adelaide South Australia

There is approximately 424,000 houses in greater Adelaide as well as about 50,00 flats and units.  Using say 30 trees per home, a quick calc gives us a base of  12,720,000 trees in front and back yards of greater Adelaide.  Add to this at least one tree per house in the street, a few trees in and around flats and units, totalling another 470,000 trees.  We also have numerous parks with lots of trees.   The Adelaide Parklands consist of 29 individual parks with most having about a 400 trees each, with two of them having in excess of 700 trees each.  Add another 110 odd smaller parks with varying numbers of trees each throughout the metropolitan area, giving us another 2750 trees.  There is also the four “squares” in the city as well giving us another 500 trees, and the Torrens River linear park, with another whopping 20,00 trees (it’s a long park).  There are more planted at golf courses and business etc around Adelaide, as well as some larger parks and open bushland within the city limits, adding another couple of hundred thousand to the tally.

Homes                         12,720,000

Streets and flats         470,000

Parklands                           2,480

Small Parks                      3,250

Larger Parks              450,000

Open bushland          200,000

Total                  13,845,730

So, nearly 14 million trees by my reckoning in the greater Adelaide area.  That’s 11 trees for every man woman and child in Adelaide, or 3 trees per 4 square metres.

You reckon your city has more trees than Adelaide?   Bring it on!

JTF