Piloting novel multi-centennial palaeoclimate records from mainland 1 southeast Australia 2

14 High-resolution palaeoclimate proxies are fundamental to our understanding of the diverse climatic history of the Australian 15 mainland, particularly given the deficiency in instrumental datasets spanning greater than a century. Annually resolved, tree- 16 ring based proxies play a unique role in addressing limitations in our knowledge of interannual to multi-decadal temperature 17 and hydroclimatic variability prior to the instrumental period. Here we present cross-dated ring-width (RW) and minimum 18 blue-intensity (BI) chronologies spanning 70 years (1929 – 1998) for Podocarpus lawrencei Hook.f. , the Australian 19 mainland's only alpine conifer, based on nine full-disk cross-sections from Mount Loch in the Victorian Alps. Correlations 20 with climate variables from observation stations and gridded data reveal a significant positive relationship between RW and 21 mean monthly maximum temperatures in winter throughout central Victoria (r = 0.62, p < 0.001), and a significant negative 22 correlation to winter precipitation (r = -0.51, p < 0.001). We also found significant negative correlations between RW and 23 monthly snow depth at Spencer Creek in New South Wales (r = -0.60, p < 0.001). Of the assessed BI parameters, delta blue- 24 intensity (ΔBI; the difference between early- and late-wood BI) displayed the greatest sensitivity to climate, with robust spatial 25 correlations with mean October to December maximum and minimum monthly temperatures (r = -0.43, p < 0.001; r = -0.51, 26 p < 0.001) and July precipitation (r = 0.44, p < 0.001), across large areas of northern Victoria. These promising findings highlight the utility of this species for future work. With the very limited availability of suitable long-lived and cross-datable 28 species on the Australian mainland, these results have significant implications for advancing high-resolution palaeoclimate science in southeastern Australia and for improving our understanding of past climate in the region. into are few such from the Australian mainland. We present results from nine cross-sections of an alpine tree species from the Victorian Alps from 1929– 1998. The tree ring widths have significant correlations with winter temperature, precipitation and snow depth. The intensity 35 of reflected blue light from the wood surface shows a strong response to growing season temperature and winter precipitation. 341 on nine fire-killed specimens from Mt. Loch in the Victorian Alps. Ring-width measurements displayed the strongest responses to mean winter temperature maxima and snow depth, analogous to that demonstrated by high altitude E. pauciflora 343 communities. The ΔBI parameter exhibited a greater sensitivity to climate than earlywood or latewood BI, presenting a particularly strong relationship with temperature and precipitation in the current growing season. This study offers encouraging 345 results, particularly those pertaining to RW, for the increased utilisation of P. lawrencei in Australian dendroclimatology. With 346 ongoing efforts to further reduce the limitations of the BI parameter and develop the most appropriate detrending methods, as 347 well as the incorporation of anatomical analysis, the BI method also offers an important opportunity in Australian 348 dendroclimatology. Given the known longevity of individual P. lawrencei specimens, the temporal extension and increased utilisation of P. lawrencei chronologies from the Australian Alps may help to provide an important perspective on climate 350 change in the region. A detailed dendroclimatological network of this species could contribute meaningfully towards 351 improving palaeoclimate data coverage in the Southern Hemisphere.