Dubbed ‘Australia’s gift to the world,’ the native macadamia tree is cultivated worldwide. However, the first and oldest cultivated macadamia tree, the Walter Hill tree, which stands in Brisbane’s Botanic Gardens, was thought to come from specimens collected in Moreton Bay over 150 years ago.
Macadamia trees thrive in the coastal rainforests of New South Wales and south east Queensland. Their nuts were a delicacy for First Nations people, who carried them as a non-perishable food source. Valued for trading, they were also given as gifts at ceremonies. The women used stones with rounded indentations and a rock hammer to crack the hard macadamia shell and access the kernel, which was then roasted in the ashes of their fires.
In 1857, Walter Hill, superintendent of Brisbane’s Botanic Gardens, and botanist Baron Von Mueller explored the forests of the Pine River in Moreton Bay. They collected specimens of a tree Von Mueller named macadamia after his scientist friend, Dr John Macadam. Initially, Hill considered the macadamia nut poisonous but soon realised its commercial potential when he discovered his young assistant eating the kernels without ill effect.
Hill germinated seedlings, planting the first cultivated macadamia, the Walter Hill tree, in the Botanic Gardens in 1858. The tree, which survives to this day, has been determined by the Macadamia Conservation Trust to be one of only ten trees from Brisbane’s original macadamia population.
The Rise of the Macadamia Industry
Walter Hill established macadamia plantations on the North Pine River in the 1860s and distributed nuts worldwide as gifts. He exchanged macadamias for plants with potential agricultural benefits for the fledgling Queensland state. His efforts led to an increased interest in macadamia cultivation among local farmers.
One of those interested was Tom Petrie. He sourced nuts from First Nations people at Buderim, planting macadamias at Yebri Creek in 1866. Subsequent generations of his family became early promoters of the macadamia. Walter Rollo Petrie experimented with seeds from a 65-year-old macadamia tree his father had grown – interplanting them among pecans for shade to simulate the macadamia’s rainforest habitat.
Until the 1980s, Hawaiian macadamias dominated world markets. The Hawaiians had launched a commercial macadamia nut industry after developing cultivars from macadamias collected from south east Queensland.
Australian macadamias are now grown from Nambucca Heads to Mackay and around 75% are exported to more than 40 countries. Today, wild macadamia trees are sought after by scientists who hope to develop new varieties that might safeguard the Australian industry against disease.
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