If you visit the museum these Christmas holidays, spend some time in our front garden – one of our holly trees has a fascinating story to tell.

During recent works to re-line damaged drains in front of the building, we discovered a significant break in a portion of pipe underneath a holly tree on the senate side of the building. Over time soil erosion generated by storm water created a large void that extended back to the footings of the building. Somehow the holly tree had managed to survive above several cubic metres of empty space!

The holly tree is part of the Old Parliament House’s heritage listed curtilage, which meant its temporary relocation to repair the pipe was a delicate, considered process. Following advice from an expert aborist, we created a one metre trench around the tree to allow the insertion of metal pipes beneath to support the root system before carefully removing it by crane.

To minimise the risk of the tree dying, we injected anti-shock treatment and reduced the size of the tree root ball – the main mass of roots at its base – and, as an extra precaution we took grafts for propagation should the tree fail to survive.

Thankfully, once the pipes were repaired we were able to safely return the holly tree to its original location. The holly tree is now thriving.