Community & Business
9 January, 2026
Not our beloved Bottle Tree!
The sleepy holiday calm of King Street at Clifton was shattered on Friday afternoon (2 January) when a large branch of the historic Bottle Tree gave way, narrowly missing a small sedan which was passing by.
The large branch fell onto the roadway blocking one lane of King Street traffic, although the disruption was minor given that there wasn’t much happening as a result of the holiday break.
The incident caused a bit of excitement for the afternoon among those who did witness it.
While the Toowoomba Regional Council was alerted to the problem, a couple of locals were quick to react.
Young Ethan Wilson, who saw the branch fall, was armed with a chainsaw while well-known local Russell May brought in a bob-cat style machine and between them they removed the debris.
Police Sergeant Vanessa Rudloff was on the scene quickly and monitored the traffic flow while lending a hand in clearing the road of small branches and leaf litter.
There has been concern among locals for some months after the bottle tree developed a lean towards the east.
During November, an arborist from the Regional Council was tasked with looking into the state of the tree.
The bottle tree is the last remaining of four planted in 1917-18 along King Street by Mr E. P. Wells and his wife.
Mr Wells was the local manager of the Queensland National Bank at the time, and they planted the trees in honour of one of his staff, other bank staff and local men who served during the “Great War” - World War I.
Because of the history of the tree, Toowoomba Regional Council has been hoping to be able to retain it.
The Council was aware that the tree had been showing signs of structural decay.
