Agathis robusta, one of

three species of Australian Kauri,

is a tall, handsome tree that can

grow to 40 metres tall in

rainforests of eastern

Queensland. Kauri Pines grow in

two main locations, one in southern

Queensland, from Tewantin to

Maryborough and including Fraser

Island, and a second, northern

population on the Atherton

Tablelands. Close relations include

Norfolk Island, Hoop, Bunya

Bunya, Monkey Puzzle and Wollemi

Pines.

Agathis belongs in the Araucariaceae, an ancient family, widely distributed in both

hemispheres in the Jurassic and Cretaceous.

At the end of the Cretaceous, and,

coincidentally, at the time of extinction of

the dinosaurs, Araucariaceae were wiped out

in the northern hemisphere, only surviving in

the southern hemisphere.

Conifers, such as the Kauri Pine are

commonly referred to as gymnosperms. In the

1980s, one system of classification placed Kauri

Pines (Agathis species) in the Order Coniferales of

the Class Gymnospermae in the Division

Tracheophyta1. We can still use the terms

gymnosperm and conifer, but molecular biology has

Kauri, Kauri Pine, Dundathu Pine

Agathis robusta

provided tools to enable us to better understand relationships between

organisms. So the Kauri Pine, (and all three genera, Agathis, Araucaria and Wollemia) within the Araucariaceae, are now included in the Division

Pinophyta of the Plant Kingdom2.

Kauri timber is highly

prized for cabinet making,

wood turning, flooring,

furniture, even for making

violins. The logs can be

massive and in order to

transport them from the

Atherton Tablelands to

Cairns by rail, a limit of 22

feet (6.7 m) was set as the

maximum size of the logs

so that they could fit

through rail tunnels on the

Kuranda Range3. This photograph, from about 1905, shows logs, probably

Kauri, hauled by bullock teams in the Eudlo District on the hinterland of

the Sunshine Coast, SE Queensland (Wikimedia Commons). 1 Bell, P & Woodcock, C. 1983. The Diversity of Green Plants. Edward Arnold, London, UK. 2 Phyllogenetic diagram from: A. Farjon and C. J. Quinn & R. A. Price in the Proceedings of the Fourth

International Conifer Conference, Acta Horticulturae 615 (2003) 3Australian Tropical Rainforest Plants: http://keys.trin.org.au/key-server/data/0e0f0504-0103-430d-8004-060d07080d04/media/Html/taxon/Agathis_robusta.htm Map modified from Australia’s Virtual Herbarium:

http://avh.ala.org.au/occurrences/search?taxa=Agathis+robusta#tab_mapView

Kevin Downing, Brian Atwell &

Alison Downing Department of Biological Sciences,

July 2013

Kauri Pines (Agathis robusta), Castle Hill Road, Rogans Hill.