‘Community, joy and light’: 45-metre-tall Christmas tree lights up the Brisbane River at Hawthorne

A Christmas tree more than twice the size of the iconic King George Square tree has lit up the Brisbane River. WATCH THE VIDEO

Giant Christmas tree lights up Brisbane

A Christmas tree more than twice the size of the iconic King George Square Christmas tree has lit up Brisbane for the holidays.

Located at Virginia Avenue in Hawthorne, the 45-metre-tall Hoop Pine tree was originally the idea of Neely Bosworth who wanted to light up her backyard to bring joy to locals.

“People have told me that it’s transformed their Christmas. Some have become very teary eyed since it’s reminded them of Christmas trees from when they were really younger,” said Mrs Bosworth.

“The tree is much bigger than me in the sense of the spirit and whole energy behind it.

“It’s really warming hearts across all of Brisbane which is quite amazing.

“That was what I set out to do was to create and celebrate community, joy and light.”

Mrs Bosworth brought this enormous tree to life with Director of Firefly Lighting Heath Williamson.

Mr Williamson recounted that the greatest challenge of this project was the tree’s overwhelming size.

“When we first turned up there, I’m thinking what crane are we going to get?”

The 45-metre-tall Christmas tree holds 50,000 light bulbs. Picture: James Davidson

Northside Christmas Tree Construction. Picture: James Davidson

Northside Christmas Tree Construction. Picture: James Davidson

“It was quite challenging and stressful but that soon got overtaken by the excitement of going, ‘we can actually do this, it’s going to be a great job’.

“So Neely can create a whole bunch of different looks for different times of year but it has the ability to look very different throughout the year to mark different occasions, special occasions and just keep people surprised.”

Director of Hatch Electrical James Davidson was another collaborator for the 50,000 light-bulb Christmas tree and described how the results have been incredibly rewarding.

“It brings people out of their normal social bubble, like the cars that are lining up in the street and just talking to Neely like they’ve known her a lifetime but they really just turned up the first time,” said Mr Davidson.

“As an 8-year-old, I entered the Courier Mail Christmas Lights competition with a pretty modest setup. So to think that a couple of decades down the track I could be working on a tree like this. My young mind would have exploded.

“It really catches the eye like nothing else.”

The Christmas tree lights from 7pm-10pm until Boxing Day and then a special one-off on on New Year’s Eve.