The City of Stirling will re-think its current practice of leaving vandalised trees for dead for up to two years so it can gather evidence. The proposal from deputy mayor Suzanne Migdale highlighted a Dianella verge tree across the road from a primary school which was identified as being poisoned. The city’s report found the tree was poisoned through 16 drill holes at its base in early 2023.
The 24m tall tree was about 40 years old with a Helliwell valuation of $30,700. As part of its current tree policy, the city fenced off the gum tree and erected signs informing the community that it had been vandalised and asking for people to come forward with any information. However, the perpetrator has not yet been identified.
Cr Migdale said the signs and non-removal of the tree was a “collective punishment” for the community while being a safety risk for students travelling to and from school. “The problem being when there isn’t enough evidence to know who killed the tree, it’s collective punishment; everybody on the street pays,” she said. “It is an extremely large tree that is completely dead and has been fenced off for two years, dropping bark on children walking to their primary school.
“We could have had by now a beautiful tree replanted, two years old and actively starting to add to our canopy. “We should still investigate and prosecute, there is no question about that. But in this instance this is an extremely large and dangerous dead tree.
” Her proposal for the city to prepare a report on the removal of the tree and discontinue the practice of not removing dead trees for two years was passed 11-1. Cr David Lagan said the tree was “one of the best bits of artwork in the city” and “a monument to bad community behaviour that’s been sitting there for two years”. Cr Stephanie Proud said she had seen a handful of instances in which the signage successfully resulted in prosecutions, but agreed two years was too long to leave a tree dead.
Cr Kristicevic said the signs punish the nearby residents of the tree by leaving the dead tree on show and suggesting a memorial instead. “I don’t see the point in leaving it there, I don’t see the point in trying to punish the community around for that,” he said. “In terms of our policy, maybe we’ll just stick up a sign with a post saying; there was a tree here, it’s name was this and it was this age and it got killed and if anybody knows who killed it please phone this number and dob them in.
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