A photograph of the Ficifolia Festival promotional sign at Drouin in about 2000.
The signage shows the iconic importance of the flowering gums, officially named "Corymbia Ficifolia", to Drouin residents.
Although Ficifolias have a clear association with the town of Drouin, they are not native to the area. The gum's natural distribution is in the south-west corner of Western Australia.
However, it is a popular and attractive street tree because of its massed colourful flowers.
Once part of the Eucalyptus family, it was separated in 1999 to become Corymbia Ficifolia, although many people still refer to them as eucalypts.
Drouin has an avenue of about 73 flowering gums along Princes Way which are a riot of colour in summer, with colours of scarlet red, burgundy, pink, orange and salmon. Although not native to Drouin, they are a significant part of the town's character and landscape.
Some 60 trees were planted during Arboretum Day in August 1936 by Drouin State School students. The Argus newspaper reported on August 22, 1936 that "the holes for the trees were dug by employees of the Buln Buln Shire Council.
Those present were addressed on 'the value of tree planting' by Cr F Bennett of Drouin."
Up until recently, there were Drouin residents who could remember planting the trees. In fact, they could even show you which tree they had planted.
This flowering gum corridor forms a spectacular avenue as people approach the town from the west and inspired the Ficifolia Festival, which began in 1989. The festival continued every year in February, until this year.
Photograph and information courtesy of Stories of Drouin, a cooperative oral history project between The Committee for Drouin, Drouin History Group and 3BBR FM to preserve local stories.
To hear more of the stories of Drouin's trees, listen to story "If Only the Trees Could Talk" at storiesofdrouin.com.au
Last week's "snapshot" resulted in further information from Gillian Harper of Officer South.
Gillian's late husband Robert Harper worked alongside Geoff McNeilly to plant the significant avenue of Bhutan Cypress trees at the intersection of McNeilly and Albert Roads in Drouin.
Gillian recalled the pair were dating when Robert, then aged 18, planted the trees in 1959. He worked for the McNeilly family at the time.