Perth Voice Interactive

THE sign says “tree protection zone” but that hasn’t stopped Bayswater council cutting down trees within it.

Greg Smith lives next door to Halliday Park and has watched one tree after another disappear, and he now uses the council’s motto “the garden city” only in jest.

He says to erect a sign declaring a tree protection zone is so Orwellian in its doublespeak the council must be taking the mickey.

The 1922 park is heritage-protected, named for the pioneering Halliday family with certain trees in memory of the family members.

Mr Smith, a former town planner once arrested for writing “ecocide” in chalk after trees were cut down to make way for Perth’s Elizabeth Quay development, argues heritage protection should extend to the trees within the park otherwise it’s hardly worth the paper it’s written on.

The council doesn’t agree.

In a written response forwarded by his media minion, mayor Sylvan Albert says “seven of the 53 trees… have reached the end of their safe life expectancy and are to be replaced”.

They’re considered to, “pose an unacceptable risk to park users. The trees are in a dangerous condition with large amounts of dead decaying wood within their structure”.

Staff considered improving the trees but reckoned “there are no realistic prospects”.

As for the bizarre twist on the “tree protection area” sign, Cr Albert says that’s required under Australian standards and the council’s required to use it. Several of the trees to be removed aren’t in that fenceline.

Mr Smith is not optimistic about a replacement scheme. Removed trees the council pledged to replace remain home to empty spots. He also showed the Voice a fledgling tree at the eastern edge of the park which had been replaced about five times due to poor nurturing.

“Putting Bayswater city in charge of tree protection is like putting a paedophile in charge of the children’s picnic,” he says, sadly.

South of the river in Beaconsfield it’s the opposite story: Fremantle city council is refusing to cut down a tree that’s on life support, despite the owner of the nearest property wanting the balded, gnarly crooked thing gone because it looks like an angry skeleton’s hand bursting from the ground.

Freo council only cuts down trees that are “unsafe, dead, or incorporates less than 10 per cent green growth”. This one probably has around 10.1.

by DAVID BELL