Tree change a saw point for Barwon Heads
BARWON HEADS is mourning the loss of a key contributor to the football club over many decades – its famous tree on the wing.
Believed to have stood right on the edge of the action at Howard Harmer Oval for about 75 years, the tree was a beloved feature of the ground and used as a grandstand of sorts for countless spectators sitting on its branches.
The tree is so entwined with the
Seagulls that the club podcast – The Tree on the Wing – was named in its honour.
“Everyone would do it – I did it myself – you would just climb up the tree and watch the footy, it was a perfect view,” podcast host Russell ‘Nipper’ Hyland said.
“When you see a picture of the tree on the wing, you know straight away you are at the Barwon Heads footy club, you only have to visit the place once and you remember the tree.”
Hyland said his father played for the club in 1947 and the tree was “a big tree then” and club president Tim Goddard believes it was planted around that time.
Native to California, the Monterey cypress tree was likely planted after World War II.
Wild winds in the storm on October 30 damaged it beyond repair and it was cut down this month.
Goddard said he would like the remaining stump to be turned into a chair or a statue, to ensure the tree lives on as the club reaches its 100th year.
“It’s always been there, anybody who played at Barwon Heads, it has just been part of the landscape,” he said. “It is disappointing it came down, we understand the reasons. It’s been a constant for the footy club since the mid-50s when we started playing down there.”