Luis Feliu
A majestic old red gum in the riverside park opposite the pub at Brunswick Heads, which park managers want to chop down on advice it’s dangerous, stands in the way of a grand plan to pave and deck a huge swathe of the grassed area, residents claim.
The historic gum, around 80 years, old stands alone in front of a row of old Norfolk Island pines along the Banner Park foreshore, which locals say is in the area earmarked for a wide concrete walkway and decking proposed to be built there.
But North Coast Holiday Parks (NCHP), the state agency charged with running the town’s three public caravan parks on Crown reserve, rejects the claim, saying an arborist report and aerial inspection had found most of the tree’s limbs decayed and deemed it dangerous.
Byron Shire Council earlier this week received a formal request to remove the tree, and compliance manager Ralph James told Echonetdaily that Council has requested an independent ecological assessment of the tree to be undertaken before it was removed.
NCHP’s proposed new draft plan of management for the Terrace Reserve and Massey-Greene caravan parks, which also take responsibility for Banner and the Terrace parks along the foreshore, is due to be presented to Council soon for its consent.
The plans have long been a source of controversy with residents in groups such as the Foreshore Protection Group (FPG) campaigning to claw back what they say are encroachments on public areas, walkways and reserves by NCHP in its expansion of the parks by stealth for commercial gain for state coffers.
The latest stoush over the tree is not new, with residents years ago fighting a similar battle to preserve it when it was then deemed dangerous, forcing remedial limb-pruning work instead.
‘It’s right in the middle of where they want to develop this park with raised decking and concrete paths through play areas: 70 per cent of the grassed area will be turned to concrete; it will spoil the natural beauty,’ FPG’s Sean O’Meara said.
He said that under draft plans from last year, ‘concrete paths that are up to four metres wide in some parts lead directly from Banner Park to the Massey Green and Terrace caravan parks so their tenants can have a safe walk to the pub,’ he said.
‘There’s no benefit at all to local residents but it will destroy the natural beauty of the Terrace and Banner parks by running concrete paths through the play areas.
‘Lot of Brunswick has no kerbs, guttering and footpaths but the state government will spend millions on providing pathways to and from their own tourist parks and destroy recreational parkland in the process.’
Locals say the tree in Banner Park is near a children’s playground, provides shade, and is home to many birds.
They have called for an independent expert opinion on the health of the tree.
Mr O’Meara said he feared for many of the old trees around Brunswick Heads under NCHP management.
He said that more than 100 trees, including some from an old remnant of native coastal cypress, in the Terrace Reserve had been tagged for removal.
He said the arborist would simply be signing the death warrant on ‘any that get in the way of any planned parkland infrastructure’.
Mr O’Meara said Brunswick Heads residents had to prepare to fight ‘or lose the entire foreshore areas that they have used for the last 100 years’.
He also questioned how NCHP ‘has any jurisdiction over this land’ as it was ‘not a holiday park’.
NCHP park co-ordinator Shari Shiels told Echonetdaily that NCHP is part of the NSW Crown Holiday Park Trust, which is ‘charged with responsibility over these reserves’.
She said that the Trust board is appointed by the (Crown lands) minister under terms of the Crown Lands Act.
Longtime local Patricia Warren told Echonetdaily that in March 2004, when Byron Shire Council had custodianship of the park, a development application was made to ‘remove’ the tree.
‘A local petition against axing the tree was accepted by Council. An arborist did the required remediation work and the tree continued much to the pleasure of the locals, including the corellas and lorikeets,’ Ms Warren said.
‘So why was remediation work acceptable then and not now?’
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