Two magnificent Ballarat trees have been pipped by a river red gum in Bulleen in the Victorian Tree of the Year competition.
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The 2019 competition, which is run by the National Trust, concluded at the weekend. The tally of votes, which were submitted via the Trust's Facebook page, showed the centuries-old red gum well ahead of the other contenders. It registered an impressive 1,045 out of a total of 3,669 votes.
However, the tree's future is in doubt with speculation over whether it will need to be removed for the North East Link, billed as the state's biggest ever state infrastructure project.
Ballarat was strongly represented in the 10-tree shortlist, which included a turkey oak in Ballarat Botanical Gardens, and a giant Tasmanian Blue Gum on Federation University's Mount Helen campus, nicknamed 'the Tree of Knowledge'.
However neither chalked up enough votes to challenge the popular red gum.
A spokesperson for the National Trust said they would call on the North East Link Authority to explore all ways of preserving the tree.
"We are pleased to see the community get behind the river red gum and celebrate the landmark that it has become in the local area," said Simon Ambrose, the National Trust CEO.
This year's runner up was the 'King Billy' Snow Gum, which chalked up 821 votes by the deadline on Sunday. The tree is located in Parks Victoria's Alpine National Park, and lives at an altitude of 1,600 metre.
It is described as one of the largest specimens of its kind known in the Mansfield region and has a canopy spreading almost 20 metres across.
This year was the third occasion the competition has taken place. Last year's winner had a close connection to Ballarat - a Monterey pine known as the lollipop tree, which is found the Mount Beckworth Scenic Reserve. Its prominent placement shows that it is visible from around 50km around.
Nominations for the tree of the year competition come from the National Trust's significant tree register, a database of more than 20,000 trees across the state.
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