The focal point of our front garden is the Brisbane Wattle. It has birds of all sizes in it every day – fairy wrens, small brown honey eaters, Australasian fig bird, Noisy friarbirds, willy wagtails, all love this tree.
In late winter, it has a mass of yellow flowers and is abuzz with bees.
22 July 2018 – the flowers are opening into fluffy yellow balls
This tree is a much under-rated plant. Very fast growing, suitable for suburban gardens, you go from tubestock to a proper tree in just a couple of years.
I have two in the front garden. The first in the main front garden has become a feature tree and offers cooling shade. The second is mixed with other shrubs near the west fence.
They grow to 5m 6 – 7 metres, are relatively short-lived, and prone to trunk splitting. The younger one split on a gusty day. It is a very windy spot. I cut off the side branch and the rest of the tree survived and now thrives.
These fast growing, medium-sized trees, popular with birds and pollinators, are a great way to turn a blank canvas into a garden.
In Brisbane, you can pick up a tube stock at most nurseries.
Key features
- Host plant for Imperial Hairstreak Butterfly.
- Popular with many birds including the Fairy Wrens and small Honeyeaters.
- Covered in yellow fluffy ball flowers in early Spring followed by brown seed pods.
- Great shade and privacy tree for a new garden.
- Tubestock are readily available at native nurseries.
- Said to be Aboriginal Food Source.
Update November 2020
There have been some borers in this tree for some time. Sometime between nightfall and about 7am this happened in two places on the tree. Consensus seems to be that it was either black or sulphur crested cockatoos seeking out the grubs and doing some tree surgery for me in the process. Such is the food cycle. I will watch the tree to see how it heals.