Herbig Family Tree

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The Herbig Family Tree is a large, hollow red gum tree at Springton located adjacent to the road from Springton to Mount Pleasant, approximately sixty kilometres from Adelaide. It is estimated to be 300 to 500 years old with a diameter of seven metres at its base and a height of twenty-four metres. A small stream runs nearby. The tree was the first Australian home of twenty seven year old Friedreich Herbig who was of German origin and arrived in South Australia from Gruenberg, Silesia, Prussia in 1855. Although a tailor by trade he first worked at a nearby dairy owned by George Fife Angas. In 1858 he married eighteen year old Caroline Rattey and took her to live in the tree home. The first two of their sixteen 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. He leased thirty two hectares of farmland on which stood the famous gum tree and worked it during his free time, and in 1867 he purchased the property. He began operating as a chaff merchant, securing the contract to supply the coaches and mail service of Hill and Company. Later the tree was used as an out-station by either Friedrich or Caroline to keep straying cattle from their crops at night. Friedrich Herbig took an active part in the Lutheran community, serving as President Elder and Layreader, he died in 1886. His wife outlived him by forty years and died at the age of eighty-seven in 1927. Seven of her children predeceased her. Both are buried in the Friedensberg Cemetery at Springton. Today the Herbig Family Tree represents a graphic link to early European settlement of the area. Herbig family reunions are held at the Tree, usually every five years. Contact address for more information: The Gums Springton South Australia 5236 It is part of the Springton German Heritage Excursion for schools, comprising Herbig Family Tree, Friedensberg Early German School Museum, Friedensberg Pioneer Cemetery.