Botanical name Commersonia fraseri
A common name Brush Kurrajong
Seedling
Most plants arise from suckers, I will post a seedling photo when I see one.
Young plant
Again, most arise from suckers, as these are. Commersonia fraseri tends to frost tender, however most plants grow back. Really severe frosts will kill mature trunks, with regrowth happening next spring. You can see evidence of frost damage in the third photo, with all the leaves visible having sprouted this Spring.
Juvenile
Commersonia fraseri undergoes a few transformations in both leaf and bark as it grows. The trunk on the left below belongs to a sapling perhaps 5 or 6 metres tall, the one on the right, a sucker, is maybe 2 metres tall.
Reasonably mature
I will get a photo soon, we have some well established older groves.
Sassafras
Brush Kurrajong is one of the really fast growing short lived trees that can pop up in disturbed areas here.
It grows much faster than Privett and can provide deep shade very fast, most useful in reducing rampant Privett regrowth. Most of the very small seedlings are small leaved Privett.
Our Swamp and Parma wallabies only seem to go for the most tender new shoots, those still obviously white with hairs, various bugs eat the mature green leaves of Brush Kurrajongs of any age. You can see the feasting has already started here.
This plant is showing frost damage from last Winter, the brownish stem to the right was last years growth, it used to be bigger, and it is now. Most setbacks like this are only temporary, other plants grow to help create more protection from frost.
Again, you can see various nibblings have taken place.
Leaves from the thicker trunk above, you can see the shape changes from a young sucker and they continue to be quite tasty. The branchlets are softly furry.