Uncle Sam tree Black Spur Yarra Ranges National Park

Argus (Melbourne, Vic. : 1848 - 1957), Tuesday 28 January 1908, page 4

A FOREST GIANT.
--"UNCLE SAM" UPROOTED.
BLOCKS THE BLACK SPUR ROAD.
"Uncle Sam" is no more. He was up-rooted by a gale which blew in the region of the Black Spur, above Healesville, yes
terday. "Uncle Sam" was reckoned the biggest tree in the states. He was over 40ft in girth and more than 200ft in height. Everybody who went up the Black Spur road was shown "Uncle Sam" whose dimensions were proudly set forth on a tin plate tacked to his hugo trunk near the ground. He was a giant amongst giants and seemed tough and vigorous enough to weather any storm for a hundred years. But appearances were deceitful for the great tree succumbed to the gale which blew yesterday.
In its fall it blocked the road, and denied right of way to the mail coach, picnic par-ties, buggies, motor-cars, and horsemen. During the day nearly every visitor in the district went up to inspect the uprooted
giant for "Uncle Sam" was one of the best "shows" of the mountain country.
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Black Spur Giants                                                                                                                                                           By N.J. Caire                                                                                                                                                                        The giant trees of the Blacks' Spur, beyond Fernshaw in Victoria, are legion but the parents of these, measuring from 40 feet to 57 feet girth, were about three in number - "Big Ben," "Billy Barlow," and "Uncle Sam," all three named by the writer. "Billy Barlow" was felled by order of the Government to cut a slab to be sent to the last Paris Exposition. "Big Ben" through not being protected was burnt a few seasons since in one of the destructive bush-fires which rages in the Dividing Ranges. And now we hear of the death of "Uncle Sam" evidently from decay.                                                                                                    Some thirty years since I measured our venerable "Uncle" at about six feet from the ground with a tightened tape, and found about 40 ft. girth. Twenty years later I took a tape and found it only measured 36 feet, and noticing signs of decay at the butt and in the uppermost branches, I concluded "Uncle Sam" had reached the zenith of his existence. The decrease in his girth was caused by the full flow of sap being interfered with, in consequence of root decay. I remarked then that it was only a matter of time when the giant trunk would become so weakened by decay as to come crushing down either in Myrtle gully below it or across the Blacks' Spur road, the later of which has now happened.                                                          The ashes of "Big Ben" have been blown to the four quarters of the globe : those of  "Uncle Sam" will soon follow in a like manner. The stump of "Billy Barlow" still remains with us, and is sufficiently large to seat a family of 12 around a circular table. When it was felled, and just previous to the time when I stood upon it and christened it "Billy Barlow," a friend of mine took the trouble of counting the rings from the core to the outer edge of the bark, giving the result of 1,200 thus showing that "Billy" was over 1,000 years old. "Big Ben," being about the same size, must have been the same age and evidently the seeds of these giants were deposited on "Syncona Hill," and the hill on the other side of Myrtle Gully, a mile distant, at about the same time. Roughly speaking the age of "Uncle Sam" may be reckoned at 1,000 years. The Unites States Government have interested themselves in everything appertaining to the giant trees of the Yosemite Valley in California, and the experts employed by them, with whom I had the pleasure of having an interesting conversation, have computed the age of the great trees at 1,800 to 2,000 years. We have still a few giant trees left, such as King Edward VII," 80 feet in girth, and his mate 58 feet in the  Cumberland forest beyond Marysville, both far advanced in decay.