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Byron Shire
March 28, 2024

Outrage over axing of rainforest trees at south Kingscliff

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One of the tuckeroos near the walking track which which were chainsawed last week. Photo Tweed Shire Council
One of the tuckeroos near the walking track which which were chainsawed last week. Photo Tweed Shire Council

Luis Feliu

A spate of shocking tree vandalism on public land at South Kingscliff, including the chopping down of a mature littoral rainforest tuckerooro last week, has outraged Dunecare volunteers, locals and Tweed Shire Council which has been trying to deter the increasing destruction along the coast.

The rainforest pocket, on the south side of Cudgen Creek on the track out to Sutherland Point, was recently vandalised and included the iconic coastal tree species, the tuckeroo (Cupaniopsis anacardioides).

Council staff say the tuckeroo is a key littoral rainforest tree along NSW north coast which plays an important role in dune stabilisation and remnant coastal habitat. It is slow growing and long-lived.

Tweed mayor Gary Bagnall was shocked at the vandalism last week, which came days after he met with coastal managers from around Australia to discuss the ‘critical issue of protecting dune vegetation’.

‘To come back home to this news was extremely disappointing, the vegetation vandalism policy adopted by council only four months ago was a response to this type of incident,’ Cr Bagnall said.

He said he had moved for the new, strengthened policy and that ‘our community expects those that live here, and those that visit, to protect the fauna and flora of our shire’.

‘I would like to stress that dune vegetation is critical to the protection of our coast and to express my thanks to all our volunteers who donate their time to Dunecare and other such organisations.’

Council’s Vegetation Vandalism on Public Land Policy was adopted last November but opposed by the pro-development faction of Crs Warren Polglase, Phil Youngblutt and Carolyn Byrne.

New ‘shame’ signs where the vandalism has occurred, increased patrolling, monitoring and enforcement of public coastal areas are the cornerstones of the new policy to try and combat the illegal poisoning, mowing, pruning, removal and ringbarking of trees in public land.

Residents are usually suspected of cutting down vegetation on public land in front of their properties to improve their views.

Council and state government staff say tree poisoning and removal from council reserves and private property appears to have reached epidemic proportions in some areas of coastal NSW.

The policy says new measures were needed because ‘if left unchecked, vandalism can have substantial financial and human resource costs for councils’ including the direct loss of the asset value of the vegetation, the cost of the investigation, rehabilitation and repair, and the cost of implementing punitive or deterrence measures’.

Another tuckeroo next to Cudgen Creek which was hacked down. Photo Tweed Shire Council
Another tuckeroo next to Cudgen Creek which was hacked down. Photo Tweed Shire Council


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8 COMMENTS

  1. Has this anything to do with A Dune with a View? Whatever the motive, the culprits are nothing but selfish, cowardly vandals.

  2. Pretty obvious who the usual suspects are… those living in the house/s that have their view blocked.
    Name and shame …perhaps.

  3. The locals of the area dont like trees I discovered as many of my own trees were poisoned by locals. In this case it is more likely to be the mindless sense enjoyers who want the views at any cost to the environment . and efforts of others to do the right thing and try to replace a tiny fraction of the trees cut down with our human encroachment
    If many trees were planted with encroachment maybe we would have a better environment . If Council stopped allowing smaller and smaller blocks for housing , where no trees can be planted , we would have a better environment with more trees in yards .

    • Unfortunately Councils usually have a very bad pro-developer culture which means we the people lose. The Gold Coast City Council takes the cake for environmental madness led by the mayor who doesn’t care.

  4. I have totally given up on that strip of what was once a beautiful area. Since all of the development along there and with more to come, it has become one big disgusting hovel where selfish city people have moved and sit there and complain about the “ugly trees” that block their “million dollar views”! I have nothing but contempt for these people… their arrival has brought about the destruction of everything that is good about my home. Hmm sounds familiar doesn’t it?! 🙁

  5. If these trees were removed to improve the view. Then I trust the council will erect an ugly board in the trees place to block the newly created and “improved “view soon. Perhaps a large advertisement billboard could be considered as this would help offset the cost of constructing the board / buying replacement trees. Council could make this a policy whereby this is done asap after a tree is destroyed and it may then deter future tree destruction throughout the shire.

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