The She Oak is Nothing Like an Oak Tree Inspired by Frankenstein

When pvrd asked me if I knew the location of the Five Mile Estate that Isaac Batey had mentioned, I had to try to find the answer, because I had often wondered where it was. I have a feeling that Isaac had mentioned this estate in regard to Feehan but I could be wrong. The search is going to be a long and tedious one but within half an hour I had made a chance discovery about another matter that had excited my wondering machine many times.

The area around Melbourne's Oak Park* was often described as originally being cloaked in several species of trees including she oaks. Not knowing which trees were meant by this term, I wondered whether farm names including Oak were bestowed because of the English tree associated with acorns or this mysterious native tree. As in the case of the Five Mile Estate,I was driving too fast to swing into a side track. It was only when I was reading about the lime burners on the Southern Peninsula that a writer thought about an ignoramus like me and explained that the she oak was the common name for the Casuarina.
*Oak Park was (later)named after the English tree which was extensively planted on his estate at Pascoeville by John Pascoe Fawkner.

This tree with its needle-like leaves is so unlike an oak tree that I was now even more puzzled about the name of the she oak which was almost exterminated by the lime burners to fire their lime kilns. The puzzle was solved by a wandering naturalist writing about his travels in 1850. She Oaks and He Oaks,despite appearances, have absolutely nothing to do with genealogy but you will be able to appear like a genius when discussing the she oaks that grew on your ancestor's property. Just for fun, you could call them beef trees at the first mention and later let your readers out of their misery with the following.

February 10.—Have some trouble again in
catching the horses. Pass by the Marsh
Public and through the estate of Mr. Bacchus,
close by the princely residence of that gentle-
man. The soil here is very rich, and closely
timbered with the drooping Eucalyptus and other
trees peculiar to good soils, namely Accacia
Melanoxyeon (light wood or black wood), Accacia
Decurrens (black wattle), Exocarpes Curessi-
formis (native cherry) Casuarina Angustifolia (she
oak), Casuarina Striata (he oak). Ii is remark-
able that neither the she oak or cherry tree are
to be found at a distance exceeding one hundred
miles from the coast. The word she oak is a
corruption of an American word sheac, or beef
wood, which this timber, when sawn through
transversely, somewhat resembles, and some con-
siderate and ingenious individuals, conceiving,
like Mrs Shelly, when she wrote Frankenstein,
that the sexes could not or should not, stand
alone, they named the upright species She-oak in
contradistinction.
(NOTES OF A NATURALIST,P.2,Argus,7-3-1850.)