A TREE enthusiast in Brighton has discovered the tallest elm tree in Australia from the comfort of his own home by using the internet.

Peter Bourne has been studying elms for 30 years and wanted to see them on the other side of the world so decided to trek down under by looking around on Google streetview.

The internet mapping application allows users to look around streets across the world and he was delighted when he spotted what he was looking for.

Peter was gobsmacked when he tipped off an Australian tree expert who visited the English elm in an obscure town, near Canberra, and confirmed the elm was the biggest in Australia.

The 51-year-old tree-hugger struck gold looking on the internet mapping technology, that provides panoramic views from positions on the road, after having a hunch they could be somewhere between Adelaide, Melbourne and Sydney.

Peter of First Avenue, Hove, said: "There are a lot of English Elms there but no one has ever recorded them, so I took it off my own back to look at street view.

"Because of my experience I can tell from pictures the size of a tree - this particular elm was stonking.

"It's pure luck I found it. I was gobsmacked as I've studied elms for 30 years in Brighton and throughout the UK, Canada and America."

As soon as Peter discovered the tree in Tumut, New South Wales, - a town about the size of Portslade - he alerted tree aficionado Derek McIntosh. Derek runs the National Register of Big Trees down under - a list of the biggest trees in Australia which he measures himself.

After travelling 264 miles from his home in Sydney, Derek measured the giant tree coming in at 39 metres high, 7.9 metres at its circumference, with a 25 metre crown spread.

It is believed to be around 100 years old and was found among other big elms on a plateau. English elms were planted in Australia by English settlers. Now two million elms thrive down under, free from the deadly Dutch Elm Disease, which effects many elms in the UK.

Speaking to Tumut's local newspaper Derek said: "Peter is always Googling elms. Elms, elms, elms. He’s been a bit of a fly in my ear, and he keeps telling me the biggest elm in Australia is in Elm Drive in Tumut.

"He's been nagging me for three years - get down to Tumut!"

Years as member of the Tree Register, a charity collecting data on notable trees in the UK, has given Peter tonnes of experience in finding giants. The tree hugger even recorded the elms in Preston Park as Europe's largest elms. Now Peter plans to head back to streetview in search of more big trees.

"It just proves technology can be a major use to the environment."