The essential oils from French lavender (Lavandula angustifolia) and tea tree (Melaleuca alternifolia) were separated by the two-dimensional GC technique of comprehensive gas chromatography. A coupled column combination of non-polar (5% phenyl equivalent) and polyethylene glycol phase columns was used to provide the desired resolution performance. By using a range of known standards, some of the peaks in lavender oil can be assigned. Some of these also occur in tea tree oil; however, from our knowledge of the major constituents in this oil and their relative retention behaviour, most of the major peaks may be tentatively assigned within the 2-dimensional separation space. There appear to be elution patterns within the 2-D space which should be useful in correlating retention with chemical and structural properties of the components, although this will require further evaluation. A range of coeluting peaks, which may not be so readily separated by using a single column capillary GC analysis, are resolved in the experiment described.