Small town's tree of the year winner is thought to be more than 500 years old

The central Victorian town of Guildford, south of Castlemaine, has claimed the title with its aptly named "Big Tree", measuring 32 metres high and more than nine metres in circumference at its base.

The National Trust of Australia (Victoria) holds the annual contest to find the biggest and best selected on a public voting system.

Thought to be one of the state's biggest trees, the river red gum would be even more impressive if not for a storm in 2015 which lopped about 20 per cent of its volume.

Estimated to be more than 530 years old, the national trust's chief executive Simon Ambrose said the river red gum won more than 40pc of all votes cast.

Despite "a small amount of deadwood and several cavities" the tree was generally in excellent condition and sported a large natural branch graft on its northern side.

"Voters have shown the significant contribution the tree has made to the local landscape with outstanding size and curious fusion of branches," Mr Ambrose said.

This year's shortlist of nine came from the trust's Significant Tree Register with three finalists from metropolitan Melbourne and six from regional Victoria.

Since 1982, the trust has included more than 1400 trees across Victoria in its register.

Guildford's citizens celebrated the win.

The town is a former gold mining settlement on the banks of the Loddon River.

Resident Ray Pattle said the community had great affection its "Big Tree", which has its own park, and is a focal point of the area.

"Everybody loves the big tree," he said.

"It's a very popular spot. They have weddings and picnics under it, and every year during our banjo jamboree there are jams and photos there."

Mr Pattle said the tree was "basically hollow inside", which had held saved it from being cut down.

"The only reason it still stands is because it's useless. Because it was big and hollow it was useless."

- with Bendigo Advertiser