Rare tree relocated at Perth Zoo

A rare Cassia fistula has been successfully transplanted from Perth Zoo’s main lawn to make way for a new café as part of the attraction’s 20-year Master Plan.

Relocating the near two tonne tree to a new site near its front entrance, the Zoo’s expert horticulturalists, with the help of The Arbor Centre, safely removed the juvenile tree (including its root bulb) from the centre of the Zoo and craned it to its new home.

A Zoo spokesperson advised, “with the café construction expected to break ground this year, works like this transplant will be undertaken to protect and enhance the Zoo’s iconic botanic estate - ensuring it continues to be an inner-city oasis.”

The site of the city’s first botanical garden, Perth Zoo is home to many rare and endangered trees.

Two Norfolk Pine trees (Araucaria heterphylla) in the Zoo’s Australian Bushwalk were planted in 1901 during a royal visit to Perth by the Duke and Duchess of Cornwall, later known as King George V and Queen Mary.

During the Second World War, apparently the Union Jack flag was hung from the Norfolk Pines.

Perth Zoo’s first head gardener, Henry Steedman, worked to select and plant a collection of palm trees that can still be seen at the Zoo today.