Victoria's Tree of the Year at Guildford - estimated to be up to 1000 years old - has suffered major damage, with a significant part of it breaking away.
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Over the weekend of February 24-25 there was a near-constant stream of visitors to The Big Tree, each with their own associations to it, after the 32m tall river redgum lost a major limb late last week.
People were left shocked and distressed by how much of the tree had broken off, but there are plans to use the wood to make benches for the local primary school.
The Eucalyptus camaldulensis, which was crowned Victoria's Tree of the Year by the National Trust last year, lost a branch the size of a mature tree, and with it a significant section of canopy, on Thursday.
The tree's age has been estimated at somewhere between 500 and 1000 years.
Memories of The Big Tree
Katrina Passalaqua, who grew up around the corner from the tree but now lives in Ballarat, heard about the event from her sister at Newstead.
"We were always told as kids that Burke and Wills camped under it," Ms Passalaqua, now in her 60s, said of the icon.
"We used to come down here and kiss the boys. We probably carved our initials somewhere."
She also remembers "lots of beehives" in the branches.
"We used to like coming down here and stirring them up."
Her mum, Melva, spent more than 50 years in the shadow of the giant eucalypt after marrying local butcher and "unofficial mayor of Guildford" Frank Passalaqua.
While the family saw branches fall from the tree over the years, they didn't recall anything on this scale.
"There might be a few twigs on a windy day or something," Katrina said. "But never like this."
Their surprise was echoed by the resident of a house near the small park the tree stands in, who heard the crash about 5pm on Thursday, and knew what it was.
She had been shocked by the size of the fallen limb and by the dramatic reduction in the tree's width as a result.
Tree 'basically hollow inside'
However, local historian Ray Pattle previously told the Advertiser the tree had lost around 20 per cent of its volume in a violent windstorm in 2015.
"Over its life lots of the branches have snapped off, and parrots and beehives and other birdlife have made their homes in the hollow," he said.
According to Mr Pattle, the tree was "basically hollow inside", a fact which had saved it.
On Saturday, Peta Rees from Campbells Creek, who was checking out the damage, described the gum as "a glorious tree".
"It breaks your heart," she said.
Her friend, Ian Tappe from Bendigo, agreed the collapse was distressing.
"I came here on Friday morning and there were quite a number of locals gathered around it," he said.
Gum the site of town's annual banjo jamboree
A lot of people knew the gum from Guildford's annual three-day banjo jamboree which took place around it, he said.
"The music festival here is a massive thing," Mr Tappe said. "This whole area is full of people and tents."
At the Guildford Hotel, publican Megan Evans agreed the wind-induced dismemberment was "the hottest thing in Guildford at the moment".
A woman had come into the pub on Thursday afternoon just after the event and asked what happened, prompting "everyone left to walk down there and see" in the stinking hot weather, she said.
"People are a bit sad about it but it's still standing. It would've been really sad if the whole thing fell over," Ms Evans said.
"Hopefully they're going to get someone to come and have a look at it, for safety."
The community hoped to use some of the wood for a project with the primary school to make benches, Ms Evans said.
The National Trust of Australia (Victoria), takes nominations from the public of trees for which have been listed on the Australia-wide Significant Tree Register for the Victorian Tree of the Year competition.
