Mallee, Red

(Eucalyptus calycogona)

Australia

A mallee is a "scrubland vegatation" or "bush" that is common in many parts of Australian wetlands and savannahs. At harvest the mallee tree delivers a host of valuable products aside from eucalyptus oil, such as activated charcoal (the most important component of most of the world’s air and water filters), raw material for particle board and finally biomass for energy generation.

Red Mallee is also referred to as Gooseberry Mallee, Pink Gooseberry Mallee, Square-Fruit Mallee,

Beginning with Aboriginal people who used eucalyptus oil for medicinal purposes, eucalypts have a long history as beneficial plants. Early colonists in New South Wales observed this and began to harvest and export the oil in the 1800’s. It was the first export of that colony. In what would later be revealed as a costly twist of fate, Australian production began to decline in the 1940’s due to cheap labour and Tasmanian Blue Gum timber plantations in developing countries. The paradoxical result has been that Australia has become a net importer of eucalyptus oil over the past 50 years despite the abundant domestic supply of eucalypt species.