A distinct smell in the streets of Holland Park has been puzzling Brisbane locals for decades.
The strong herbal-like odour has prompted discussions on social media.
Some suggest it emanates from a clandestine drug crop. Some insist it is a build-up of bat faeces. Others say it’s possum urine. Others blame a noxious weed.
George Sotiriou, 48, remembers the smell lingering in the air back when he was a high school student.
It’s strong and pungent at times, but it can only be smelled along a small section of Cavendish Road, between Holland Road and Elgar Street, alongside Cavendish Road State High School.
“I make sure I put my windows up every time I drive past,” Sotiriou says.
“As soon as you turn the corner though, the smell disappears. I’ve been smelling it for decades and always wondered where it came from.”
Sotiriou runs a hair salon on Holland Road, barely a kilometre from the smell zone.
“You can’t smell it here,” he says from his salon.
His two children, who attend the high school, say the smell wafts through the school grounds at times.
“They hate the smell,” he says.
But others don’t mind the aroma, likening it to the smell of a rainforest or the bush.
Therein lies a clue.
An inquiry to Brisbane City Council puts the speculation to rest.
“It’s a familiar scent in the neighbourhood and one plenty of locals would recognise, even if they wish they didn’t,” local councillor Krista Adams says.
“It actually comes from the green kamala tree, which has a pretty distinctive aroma – often compared to something a little cheeky.
“There are a few along Opal Street, so when they’re around, that smell isn’t far behind. I promise though, it’s a lot more innocent than people tend to suspect.”
A visit to the area confirms four clumps of green kamala trees are planted inside a grey, wooden fenceline, on the corner of Opal Street and Cavendish Road.
The residents politely declined to be interviewed, but confirmed they were rather rudely raided by police some years ago, the officers responding to reports of a marijuana smell wafting from the property.
Green kamala trees [scientific name: Mallotus claoxyloides] are also known as Smell of the Bush, or Scent of the Forest, after the strong odour they emit, particularly after it rains.
Yet, the closer an observer gets to the leaves, the less obvious the scent – hence the enigma.
Marion Goward, 83, who has long been involved in Brisbane-founded The Men of the Trees volunteer organisation, talks about green kamala trees with affection.
“My grandmother loved it – she lived on a dairy farm in the Tweed. I love it myself.
“But my mother disliked it because it reminded her of the smell of the monkey cages in the Botanic Gardens, and the urine-soaked hay at the bottom of the cages,” she says.
The Brisbane City Botanic Gardens featured a popular, yet controversial, small zoo with monkey cages that operated until 1958.
“You don’t come across [the green kamala smell] very often these days. I think it should be planted more and grown everywhere,” she says.
Goward was involved in planting a green kamala near Ithaca Creek. “I check on it every now and then, and it’s going well,” she says.
She recalls a conversation she had with renowned late Queensland botanist Selwyn Lawrence Everist.
“I asked him about the smell. He often wondered what the smell was himself.
“It was always hard to locate, like a ventriloquist-type of smell,” she says.
“He used to pick various plants, thinking they might be it. He’d put them in his car and take them home, and never had any luck with them. Until he did.
“He took a branch of a green kamala tree, and took it home and tossed it into his office.
“In the morning, when he got up, he opened the door to the office, and the smell nearly knocked him over.”
Social media users have reported detecting the scent outside All Hallows School near the corner of Ann Street in the city, and along Appleby Road in Stafford Heights, as well as around the McDonald’s restaurant at Kenmore, not far from the creek near Moggill Road.
Green kamala trees
- Green kamalas can grow up to eight metres high, often near creeks.
- They produce yellowish, green flowers between October and March.
- The plant is found naturally in drier rainforest areas on the NSW and Queensland coasts.
- It produces a pleasant and evocative smell to most people, but others loathe the scent.
- Visitors from the US and Canada liken the smell to that of a skunk.
- The smell is more noticeable after it rains. But the origin of the smell can be difficult to pinpoint because its strength seems to fade as the plant is approached.
Source: Save Our Waterways Now (SOWN)
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