A competition that celebrates the state's most significant trees is open for public voting. The shortlist takes in well-known specimens from cities, towns and botanic gardens across Victoria.
The contest is run by a heritage organisation that has advocated for tree protection for many years. The winner is chosen by the public rather than by judges, and the result is announced later in spring.
Image: Bunya pine at Nagambie, Victoria, by Mattinbgn via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 3.0. The tree in this photograph stands at Nagambie and is a different specimen of the same species as the Maldon finalist.
The nine finalists, and a local pair
Nine trees are finalists in the 2026 National Trust Victorian Tree of the Year competition.
A bunya pine in Kathy Whiteman's front yard in Maldon is one of them. She says visitors are told to look for the big tree to find her house.
Bunya pines can live for up to 500 years and were once planted widely in early Victorian gardens. The tree fruits every three years and drops heavy cones. Ms Whiteman says the cones she has handled weigh 5 to 7 kilograms, and that she wires the front gate shut in fruiting season and keeps clear of the ground beneath it.
Her tree is one of two finalists from the same shire. An Indian bean tree at the Castlemaine Botanical Gardens is also in the running. Those gardens already hold the 2021 Victorian Tree of the Year.
Ms Whiteman did not nominate the tree herself. She says she would be pleased to see it win, because the title would help protect it and bring more visitors to the town.
How the shortlist was chosen and how voting works
Members of the public nominated trees listed on the National Trust Victoria's Significant Tree Register, a roll of trees recognised for their cultural, scientific or historic value. An expert committee then cut the field down to nine.
Nominations opened on National Tree Day on 26 July 2026 and closed on 30 August 2026. The winner is decided by a public vote. Voting opened at 9am on 22 September 2026 and closes at midnight on Thursday 22 October 2026, with the winner announced in late October.
A place on the register does not protect a tree by itself. It records that the tree has been assessed and recognised, which gives councils, community groups and owners a documented reason to argue for its retention when building, road or service works are planned nearby.
Justin Buckley, executive manager of gardens and landscapes at the National Trust Victoria, said trees need protection. He said a great deal of care sits behind a tree that has lasted a century, and that it is not luck alone that keeps one standing. He added that trees in urban areas are close to irreplaceable, because there is no realistic chance of planting another of that size.
He said the organisation hopes people will think about the trees and what suits them best when works are carried out on buildings and roads around them.
The other finalists
Regional Victoria supplies three more finalists. A ginkgo at the Geelong Botanic Gardens began as a seed planted there in 1859 and is the largest of its kind in the state. A myrtle beech stands at Apollo Bay. A Canary Island pine at Ballarat Central was planted by Jacob Bernstein in 1867.
Melbourne's finalists are spread across the city. A Golden Wych Elm at South Yarra is seen by thousands of commuters. A smooth barked apple myrtle at Prahran is the largest known specimen in cultivation and was kept as part of a higher density housing development, the kind where more homes go onto land already served by roads and services. A stand of Californian redwoods at Warburton was planted in the 1930s by the Melbourne Metropolitan Board of Works to test whether conifers could help clean drinking water. A flooded gum at Carlton North was probably planted in the 1960s or 1970s, although the species naturally grows north of Newcastle.
What the trees represent
Bunya pines come from Queensland and hold cultural and spiritual importance for First Nations peoples. The seeds inside the cones are an important food source, the new shoots can be eaten, and the bark can be used as kindling.
Myrtle beech have grown in Australia since the time of the Gondwanan supercontinent, the ancient landmass that later broke apart. They are now limited to high rainfall areas of Victoria and Tasmania, can live for up to 500 years and are highly susceptible to fire. Myrtle wilt has become a serious problem for the species.
The National Trust of Australia (Victoria) has advocated for tree protection for more than 70 years. Its register is the list from which every finalist is drawn.
What the register does
The register dates back to the early 1980s, when the National Trust began recording trees it judged to hold cultural, scientific or historic value. Entries are added after members of the public nominate a tree and it passes assessment.
Listing does not make a tree safe forever. It gives the people who care for it a documented reason to speak up when a building, road or service upgrade is planned nearby.
The competition is the trust's public face for that work, and the vote is the part anyone can join in.
How to vote and what it means locally
Voting is open to the public, and each voter picks a single tree. The contest draws attention to trees that might otherwise pass unnoticed, and past winners show the spread of entries.
The 2025 winner was an Algerian oak at Kingston, and the 2024 title went to a mountain ash known as the Mount Fatigue Giant at Gunyah in South Gippsland. Castlemaine's botanic gardens claimed the 2021 award.
Both central Victorian finalists stand in the Mount Alexander Shire, where Maldon and Castlemaine sit a short drive apart. A strong showing in the vote would draw more visitors to both towns.
For more on the region, start with the Victoria local guide.
Works Cited
McGuinness, Anna. "Maldon tree among finalists in National Trust 2026 Victorian Tree of the Year competition." ABC News, 22 Sept. 2026, https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-09-22/victorian-tree-of-the-year-2026-finalists-maldon-bunya/107177952.
National Trust of Australia (Victoria). "Victorian Tree of the Year." National Trust of Australia (Victoria), accessed 23 Sept. 2026, https://www.nationaltrust.org.au/treeoftheyear.