Firewood, page-37

Schinus areira: the peppercorn tree

Another one is the peppercorn tree.

Schinus areira, as is its scientific name, is native to South America and came to Australia via this strong trading link with the Americas.

Interestingly, its dispersal across NSW was not via Sydney's Botanic Gardens, but Adelaide's.

Craig Burton, adjunct professor at the University of Western Australia is a landscape architect and arboriculture historian.

He explains how the peppercorn tree's immediate success in Adelaide's alkaline soils saw George Francis, the director of Adelaide Botanic Gardens, enthusiastically promote the species to other dry parts of the nation.

"It was planted in Sydney very early in the 1830s but it didn't really take off," Professor Burton said.

"But it took off in Adelaide because of the alkaline soils, and the colonists of South Australia actually produced them and they traded them up the rivers before the rail system got in.

"Its biggest impact was coming up the paddle steamers into outback NSW. "

Women washing in front of a peppercorn tree at a property in Gunbar, New South Wales.(

Supplied: State Library of New South Wales

)

Why was it always planted at schools?

The trend of the peppercorn tree being consistently planted in schoolyards could be more perceived than real.

"They are targeted because of their ability to deal with the unpredictable climates," Professor Burton said.

"And not just schools, they were planted everywhere — parks, streets, railway stations everywhere.

"There is an association [with schools] because people experienced them having gone to school particularly in the west [of NSW] — the central west, the western slopes and plains, the far west.

"The heyday of schinus was the 1890s — probably most of the old ones still existing are from that period."

Jodi Frawley believes their use would have extended to form as well as function, with the peppercorn tree's weeping foliage.

"This was really about ensuring that kids had places that were shady, as well as beautiful, to be in when they weren't actually in the classroom," Dr Frawley said.

..it's an import but very old.....looks great where it is and I don't want to cut down ,my partner wants to get rid of it....but it's irreplaceable in terms of size and probably spoil the look of the place without it..and its helping the air.
Found this brief history on them here...when checking out if they were good firewood...which I still can't find.