About Signature Trees
Who we are
Signature Trees is an Australian grower of individual advanced and ex-ground specimen trees. We grow across two estates in Queensland — a cool subtropical highland farm at Ravensbourne and a tropical farm at Utchee Creek in the Far North — giving our trees, and our clients, one of the broadest climatic ranges of any grower in the country.
Our trees are grown for people who take the long view: landscape architects, councils, estate builders and private gardeners who understand that a mature tree is not a product but a presence. Every specimen we release has been shaped by years of patient cultivation, and many are individuals in the truest sense — a single 400-litre Waterhousea floribunda with its own history, photographed and documented as the one tree it is.
Our heritage
Signature Trees continues a growing legacy that spans more than five decades. The Ravensbourne property — 40 acres of rich volcanic soil — was established in 2002 by James and Barbara McGeoch and has run on renewable energy, rainwater-harvested irrigation and organic fertilisers alone since day one. James brings fifty years of horticultural experience, including twenty-four years as managing director of Birkdale Nursery (1982–2006), the first nursery in Australia to achieve ISO Quality Assurance certification (1995) and recipient the same year of an Australian Government citation for export achievement. Barbara built the business's global export network over twenty-five years; she was named Entrepreneur of the Year 2002 by Femmes Chefs d'Entreprises Mondiales, received the Westpac/Australian Institute of Export Heroes Award in 1999 and served twelve years as a Director of the Export Council of Australia.
Under the Emaho Trees name, the farm supplied major council and landscape projects across Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria for more than twelve years, and exported to the Middle East, China, Hong Kong and Macau. When Disneyland Hong Kong planted its entry avenue, it did so with 120 six-metre clear-trunked Phoenix canariensis and 150 Ficus macrophylla grown under James's direction; later projects included Disneyland Shanghai, MGM Cotai (2016) and Wynn Palace (2016). The gardens were featured on ABC Gardening Australia in 2017 and in Australian Weekend Magazine in 2021, and the farm on ABC Landline in 2021. In time, the McGeochs passed the Emaho name to new custodians and carried the land, the trees and the practice forward as Signature Trees.
Two estates, two climates
The Ravensbourne Estate
507 Ravensbourne Dip Road, Ravensbourne QLD 4352. Set at 750 metres elevation in the cool subtropical highlands roughly 150 kilometres north-west of Brisbane, near Toowoomba. Trees grown here are hardened by altitude, cool nights and seasonal frost, and settle readily into landscapes from south-east Queensland through to Victoria. Visits are welcomed by appointment.
The Utchee Creek Estate
310 Duncan Road, Utchee Creek QLD 4871. In the tropical Far North near Innisfail, this estate grows species that thrive in warmth and generous rainfall, extending our range into the tropical and warm coastal palette.
Together, the two farms allow us to match tree to place with unusual precision: a specimen conditioned in a climate close to the one it is destined for arrives ready to establish.
Growing philosophy
We grow ex-ground and advanced trees, and we believe a tree is made below the surface long before it is admired above it.
Our ex-ground trees are cultivated in the soil, where roots develop in natural proportion to canopy, and are prepared for harvest through a staged root-management program — root-pruned as they grow and again before digging, fed Auxinone and seaweed extract, and lifted with a four-concave-blade tree spade — so that each tree lifts with a dense, well-structured root system. Advanced container stock is grown up through graduated sizes, with root health monitored at every transition. Correct planting depth, root-flare visibility and root structure are checked as a matter of course; our planting guides carry the same standards to the landscapes our trees join.
Because a mature tree is an individual, we treat it as one. Larger specimens are offered with their own photographs and provenance, while our advanced container lines, from 45 litres to 200 litres, are grown in consistent, repeatable batches for projects that need uniformity at scale.
B Corp certification
As Emaho Trees, this farm was the first farm in Australia and New Zealand to achieve B Corp certification for its positive social and environmental impact. The transfer of that certification to Signature Trees is under way, and the practices behind it continue unchanged: the Ravensbourne Estate has run on renewable energy, rainwater-harvested irrigation and organic fertilisers alone since it was established in 2002, and both farms support their local communities.
We treat certification not as a marketing device but as a discipline — an annual, audited account of how the business treats its people, its neighbours and its land. Read more on our B Corp Certification page.
Capability statement
- Range. Advanced container lines from 45 to 200 litres; semi-mature specimens from 300 to 500 litres; estate and ex-ground trees from 750 litres upward, including basket-grown stock. Ex-ground trees are lifted in hessian-lined, engineer-rated wire baskets with root balls to 3,000 kilograms, at heights to 15 metres in some species.
- Stock. Australian native and exotic species across two climatic zones, from frost-hardy highland stock to tropical specimens.
- Specimen provenance. Every significant specimen carries a numbered Tree Passport — estate, row, year planted, root-management history and current measurements — that travels with the tree, together with individual photography; consistent batch supply in advanced container lines.
- Project supply. A supply history of more than twelve years to major council and landscape projects across Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria, together with export experience to the Middle East, China, Hong Kong and Macau.
- Delivery. Australia-wide delivery arranged for single specimens through to full project consignments; on-board craneage can place a tree directly into its planting hole where the truck can stand within seven to eight metres.
- Advice. Species selection, climatic suitability and planting guidance offered as part of every engagement; farm visits by appointment.
Values
Patience. Trees are grown at the speed of trees. We do not hurry them, and we do not overstate them.
Provenance. Every significant tree we sell carries a numbered Tree Passport — estate, row, year planted, root-management history — that travels with the tree, tracing it to the ground it grew in, the hands that shaped it and the seasons it has weathered.
Stewardship. We farm on renewable energy and harvested rainwater, feed our soil organically and hold ourselves to the audited standard of B Corp certification.
Candour. We describe our trees exactly as they are. Where a species will not suit a site, we say so.