Naturalising Australian trees in South Africa: Climate, exotics and experimentation

This article explains how South African foresters have selected, experimented with and successfully grown Australian genera and species of trees in plantations during the past 130 years. First in the Cape Colony in the 1880s and 1890s, and later elsewhere in South Africa in the twentieth century, foresters developed theoretical techniques to find climates similar to those in southern Africa in order to select exotic species of trees from those regions. They then tested these species in experimental arboreta and plantations across South Africa to select the most successful and valuable species to grow commercially in each area. This globally unique and ultimately successful research programme arose in response to local environmental constraints, an increasing demand for timber, and the difficulties that foresters and white settlers faced when trying to select and grow Australian trees. This article revises historical understandings of the development of silviculture in South Africa and intervenes in current scientific and popular debates over Australian trees in South Africa.