Hidden deep in the Blue Mountains among the steep cliffs and eucalyptus canopy lies a living fossil.
The Wollemi Pine thrived 91 million years ago, when dinosaurs roamed the earth.
It was thought to have gone extinct two million years ago, until 1994, when an off-duty park ranger stumbled across a grove of these prehistoric giants.
There are less than 90 Wollemi Pines remaining in that single grove west of Sydney. No more have been found in the wild since.
“It’s been described as the botanical find of the century,” said Dave Crust, Blue Mountains branch director of the NSW National Parks & Wildlife Service (NPWS).
“The fact that such a small population just remained in this incredibly remote canyon in Wollemi National Park is pretty remarkable.”
The discovery was grand but for the past three decades, a dedicated team has been working to conserve these ancient trees.
7.30 was granted exclusive access to visit one of three translocation sites, where the NPWS has planted hundreds of Wollemi Pines to expand the tree’s footprint.
“A translocation site is somewhere where we introduce a threatened species into another location in an area, in order to kind of provide an insurance population,” Mr Crust said.
“The population was at a number where any significant event impacting … could have caused their extinction, so we’re at a point now where we’re trying to rebuild that population.”
The translocation site was established in 2019 and more than 300 Wollemi Pines have been strategically placed among the thick bush.
From the outset they look similar to a fern with apple-green foliage, but they have a unique bark texture that has been likened to the cereal Coco Pops.
The Wollemi Pines at the translocation site are quite small, ranging in size from 30 centimetres to 2 metres tall.
“Wollemi Pine seedlings and saplings grow less than one centimetre a year. They won’t mature until they can reach the rainforest canopy and access the sunlight above,” research scientist Berin Mackenzie said.
