Marrickville Road looking towards Sydenham
For the first time since SoT has been in existence Marrickville Council has issued a ‘Post-Notification of emergency street tree removal’ on their website. I think this is excellent & will go a long way in gaining community trust. I thank Marrickville Council for doing this.
Tree number 1:
“Council regretfully identified the need to remove the public tree identified below.”
1x Broad Leafed Paperbark (Melaleuca quinquenervia) outside 2 Cary Street Marrickville (adjacent to 30 Excelsior Parade).
Council gave the following reasons for removal –
- “Sydney Water carried out underground infrastructure works, which resulted in severe root damage within the tree’s structural root zone. An assessment of the excavation works found that in excess of 50% of the structural root system had been removed & the tree’s ongoing stability had been compromised beyond retention.”
Council say they will replace this tree with a Prickly Paperbark (Melaleuca styphelioides) & & intend to plant it during the 2012-2013 planting season.
Tree number 2:
This was also a ‘Post-Notification of emergency street tree removal.’
“Council regretfully identified the need to remove the public tree identified below.”
1 x Broad Leafed Paperbark (Melaleuca quinquenervia) outside Pile Street Marrickville (adjacent to 120 Wardell Road).
Council gave the following reasons for removal –
- “The tree was recently struck by passing truck, which caused 70% of the tree’s canopy to fail over the roadside. The remaining tree had structural damaged & was compromised beyond retention.”
Council say they will replace this tree with a Prickly Paperbark (Melaleuca styphelioides) & intend to plant it during the 2012-2013 planting season.
Trees number 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, & 17:
Marrickville Council has given notice that they intend to remove the following trees in Marrickville Road Marrickville -
- 7 × Water Gum (Tristaniopsis laurina)
- 7 × Firewheel tree (Stenocarpus sinuatus) &
- 1 × Silky Oak (Grevillea robusta)
Council gives the following reasons for removal –
- “they are under-performing and in poor overall condition; &
- improvement works to the streetscape will establish a consistent avenue of tree species to increase the landscape amenity value of the area.”
It looks like this Lily Pily will be retained.
Council say their contractor will remove the tree within 2-4 weeks & that they will replace these trees with “24 × super advanced native trees and 1 x super advanced exotic tree” immediately following the tree removal works.
I am presuming that the trees up for removal are those from Sydenham Railway Station to the Marrickville Road shopping strip. While I am very pleased that this section will be planted with matching trees & super-advanced trees at that, it bothers me that the trees that are up for removal were not identified by their address & that the species of replacement trees were not identified either. There were no signs on the trees to be removed, whereas there were signs sticky-taped to the trees that are to be removed in the Dulwich Hill shopping strip.
Marrickville Councillors voted unanimously in September 2010 at the Land Use, Assets & Corporate Committee Meeting for – “footpath enhancement – fixing the footpath & adding trees & lengthened landscaped tree pits at a cost of $530,000.” See – http://bit.ly/nSyrlT
There were 2 young trees in extended pits. This tree has a broken trunk & will not survive.
At this meeting Council said they would put a plan out for community consultation & I guess what they put on their Tree Notification webpage is community consultation, but it is not their usual way for such an extensive & costly job. Whether it matters or not depends on what species of tree they are planting as replacements. My preference is for evergreen trees that grow taller than the current Water Gums & have a significant canopy so the road can develop a green & leafy outlook.
The bulk of the street trees along this section of Marrickville Road are in a bad way. That they have survived at all in such small holes & in such dreadful conditions is astounding. I could not find the Silky Oak so it must have already been removed – unless I am looking at the wrong section of Marrickville Road.
There are 2 extended tree pits, but I can’t tell if they are new. The woodchip appears to have been recently laid. The trees are about 2-metres tall & the ground has eroded
This & another Eucalypt is not on the removal list.
exposing their roots so I suspect they were planted in 2011. At 2-metres I doubt this is one of the super-advanced trees.
Marrickville Council is about to remove 8 under-performing street trees along the Dulwich Hill shopping strip on Marrickville Road & replace with 7 x super-advanced trees. See – http://bit.ly/MF1Kol
They have also recently removed concrete & planted a number of good-sized Eucalypts on both side of the street along Marrickville Road towards Dulwich Hill, which was really good to see. Tackling this section of Marrickville Road from Sydenham Railway Station to the Marrickville Road shopping strip is a good thing & I am very pleased Council is doing this work. It will be great if one of our major ‘gateway’ roads looks pleasant & hopefully the trees will add beauty to what is, in my opinion, quite a hard landscape in this section.
Looking down Marrickville Road towards the Marrickville shopping strip. Council say they will remove 8 underperforming Firewheel trees shown on the left just behind the parked cars. I counted 13 Firewheel trees in this row.
No mention of removing these trees
Row of Water Gums to be removed & replaced.
2 comments
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June 16, 2012 at 2:46 pm
brenda
I hope council also extends their planting of advanced trees to other areas in the LGA.
There are many streets that would be ideal for landscaping and be made much more appealing with the presence of trees.
What a difference trees make to a roadway, especially a major road.
I am glad to see extended pits for trees but this only works if the trees are unharmed. I am disappointed to see the trunk of a tree has been broken in one of these pits. Hopefully this was not a result of vandalism. I would like to encourage the community to look after the trees in their areas and on their streets because they are assests.
June 17, 2012 at 7:57 am
Adam
If trees are performing poorly, it means one thing – poor species selection. The fact that so many specimens are performing poorly is indicative of poor tree choice. The Landscape Architects at MCC need to do the obvious – select trees which are not only fast growing, but resistant or at least tolerant of the conditions of public spaces. May I suggest:
Leopard Tree (Caesalpinia ferrea) – long tap root thus no damage to Council infrastructure, good shade tree
African Tulip Tree (Spathodea campanulata) – fast growing, attractive blooms, open canopy.
Note to MCC Landscape Architects – we are not within Byron Shire; these rainforest species are obviously not resilient enough to grow here and are costing the taxpayer valuable money in maintenance and now removal.