Thousands baffled by feature on Melbourne trees

Ever wondered why Melbourne trees are wrapped in metal? Reddit is trying to find the answer.

A Reddit user on their first trip to Melbourne has sparked a debate after asking what the metal bands often wrapped around the trees in local parks, like Fitzroy Gardens, could possibly be for.

User UnPerroTransparente posted a photo of one of the trees with the caption: “Curious about this one on my first visit to Melbourne. What are these for?”

While the short and boring answer is that they’re simply used to stop possums and other small animals from climbing the trees, Reddit was quick to come up with a variety of alternative answers.

A Reddit user sparked debate around the purpose for metal wrapping on Melbourne trees. Picture: Reddit / User UnPerroTransparente.

“To stop Melbournians (sic) from getting into trees and eating the new growth after big night at Revs,” said one commenter. For non-locals, ‘Revs’ is a nightclub called Revolver in Prahan.

“For modesty,” suggested another.

One commenter has clearly been reading too much Harry Potter when they came up with this magical explanation:

“So on a full moon, trees in Melbourne come to life. When they do, the bases of their trunks split into legs. That’s to keep them stationary and ensure they can’t walk around. You have to be really careful to not get too close to them when they’re in this state, because they’ll smack the hell out of you in frustration. The Whomping Willow from Harry Potter was partially inspired by these trees”.

A fallen tree in the Fitzroy Gardens, wrapped in a metal sheet.

I’ll be honest, the only comment I want to talk about is this one, that at first glance seems like yet another smart alec reply:

“It’s well known that Melbourne’s trees each have an email address, so underneath these bands is the technology that allows them to receive their emails”.

But it’s not! As it turns out, you can absolutely email trees in Melbourne. It was set up by The City of Melbourne’s Urban Forest and Ecology Team.

They created an interactive map — called Urban Forest Visual — showing all the trees in the council area. If you click on it, you’ll be shown information about its genus and age — as well as its personal ID number and email address. I have no words.

Originally published as Thousands baffled by feature on Melbourne trees