The Herbig Family Tree

The Herbig Family Tree is a large, hollow red gum tree at located on Angaston Road at Springton. It is estimated to be up to 500 years old with a diameter of seven metres at its base and a height of 24 metres. The tree was the first Australian home of 27 year old Friedrich Herbig who arrived in South Australia in 1855. In 1858 he married 18 year old Caroline Rattey and took her to live in the tree home. The first two of their 16 children were born there. In 1860 he built a two roomed pine and pug hut nearby, and as his family increased, built a stone cottage adjacent to the hut. The Peramangk people once utilised the tree as shelter. You can still see the tree's coolamon scars (evidence of Aboriginal people carving wooden dishes out of the tree's bark). Today the Herbig Family Tree represents a graphic link to both indigenous and early European settlement of the area.