Trees constitute key components in a healthy environment, and are of pivotal importance to human and societal development. While most other plants are viewed rather dispassionately and food crops are viewed as “commodities”, trees are frequently given intrinsic moral and ethical values. Such values are additional to the range of wood and non-wood products and environmental services provided by forests and forest ecosystems. Australian trees have over the past century yielded a number of goods of importance to the national economy. In addition, the distribution and trade in Australian tree seeds has, over the past 200 years, been a resource which has benefited Australia; these benefits have, however, been most pronounced in a large number of countries in the Mediterranean, and in the tropics and sub-tropics, which have introduced Australian tree species and established large areas of forest plantations for productive and protective purposes. The paper traces the history of forest genetic resources work in Australia, with special reference to the collection, handling and distribution of seeds, information and know-how, starting from the founding in 1962 of The Eucalyptus Clearing House, established by the Forestry and Timber Bureau in response to calls for action within the FAO Freedom for Hunger Campaign, and as a contribution to activities of the World Seed Year in 1961; through to modern days and the Australian Tree Seed Centre, a highly skilled, specialized unit, attached to the CSIRO Division of Forestry and Forest Products. The paper acknowledges the unique Australian contribution to national and international efforts in the conservation and wise use of forest genetic resources, supported by the work of the ATSC. It places Australian achievements over the past decades within the context of international developments, reviewing the history of seed exchange, advances in tree breeding and in related fields of science, and comments on the relevance and likely effects of new international agreements and regulatory frameworks. Finally, some predictions and suggestions are made related to the future role of the ATSC.
