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The Fig Trees Tent Embassy in Civic Park last Saturday evening. You have to admire the community who won't give up the fight against Newcastle Council while the trees are still standing. Photo by Caitlin Raschke
Some great things happened over the weekend regarding Newcastle’s iconic Laman Street Fig trees –
- A tent embassy was erected at Civic Park over the weekend to protest the removal of the Laman Street Fig trees. There were around 10 tents with residents sleeping overnight in the park.
- On Sunday night, Lord Mayor John Tate served papers on Newcastle Council’s General manager saying that, “there was concern that proper procedure had not been followed leading up to the order to cut the trees down, & two councillors missed last Thursday’s meeting.” – so the trees are still standing.
- About 250 people came to Civic Park at 5.30am this morning to form a picket line to prevent the trees from being chopped down.
I find it interesting that the rest of us mortals cannot start any building or noisy work before 7am & 8am on Sundays, but Newcastle Council could have trees chopped down at 6am. They probably thought the community would not attend at such an early hour, not suspecting that such a large crowd would arrive even earlier & on a Monday. http://www.theherald.com.au/news/local/news/general/laman-street-figs-get-last-minute-reprieve/2272790.aspx
Community group Save Our Figs say that the independent assessment could be done for a cost of $20,000 of which they would pay half & that the reported cost of $70,000 was “wildly exaggerated.” Once again, the community is prepared to pay thousands of dollars to ensure an unbiased decision is made because they do not trust Newcastle Council.
Newcastle Council has even refused the offer of local businessman Roman Fidyk of the company MyFleet who offered to pay for the dynamic testing of the trees. (about $35,000). Mr Fidyk “… was amazed at the council’s lack of interest in his offer.”
I don’t understand why the Council does not take up either of these options. To do anything else, when both the community & the Lord Mayor, are advocating more examinations, leaves the impression that the Council has something to hide. Even the urgency to cut the trees today is a mirage, because the insurance company extended the deadline until the end of October 2011. http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-08-29/figs-reprieve/2860094/?site=newcastle
My last post on the Laman Street Figs is here - http://savingourtrees.wordpress.com/2011/08/26/the-laman-street-figs-next-life-will-be-mulch/
Another view of the Fig Trees Tent Embassy. Photo by Caitlin Raschke
Last week the community group Save Our Figs & Newcastle City Council participated in mediation with the Hon Michael McHugh AC QC. They reached an agreement that the option of an independent third party who would assess all the documents relating to the purported risk of the Laman Street Fig trees & make a binding determination as to the fate of the trees would be put to the Councillors.
This was important because it meant that both the Arborists Reports from both sides would be considered, as would all the other information regarding the safety of the trees that is disputed.
Unfortunately Newcastle City Council has done a number of things in this process, which resulted in issues of trust in the community. Just recently they had staff at the trees ready to chop them down before the vote was held at the Council Meeting. That sure gave the community confidence that their issues were being given due consideration. The community has had to work in a working party with the same staff who recommended that the trees be chopped down. Needless to say this process didn’t get far. Recently, the acting General Manager said that “council officers should not be voting on matters in which they have to give advice. He said it was an example of poor governance.” http://saveourfigs.wordpress.com/2011/08/17/council-update-16-8-2011/ Documents & reports have not been available, except under an FOI request, further adding to the perceived lack of transparency of Newcastle Council by the community.
Over 10,000 people signed a petition to keep the trees. The community made numerous YouTube videos, sent submissions to Council & organized fund-raising activities as fighting Newcastle Council was a very costly exercise for the community that went into tens of thousands of dollars. It’s hard enough to get people to attend one event, yet the Newcastle community went out to an evening vigil 69 times to protest the trees removal & attract the attention of the Council. They did all that they could.
An independent decision maker would be excellent for all concerned. If the community believed the information coming out of Newcastle City Council was correct, the community would have accepted its decisions.
So last night, the option of a third party assessor was brought to an Extraordinary Council Meeting & (…….drum roll……..) was voted against by 7 Councillors. Two Councillors were absent.
These same Councillors voted against performing dynamic testing on the trees to see if they would actually move or fall when pulled by machinery that will read the slightest movement. They also voted against the rescission motion to not remove the trees.
So the Laman Street Figs that more than one respected Arborist say are not a risk & have survived 4 recent major storms, including the Pasha Bulker Storm, without falling or dropping a limb or even a small branch are to be chopped down. In spring-time. Hard to believe.
Just for interest, even the business papers for last night’s Extraordinary Council Meeting were not available for the community on Newcastle Council’s website, which is against usual practice.
http://saveourfigs.wordpress.com/ has the whole story & it makes interesting reading.
Today’s news about last night’s Council Meeting – http://www.theherald.com.au/news/local/news/general/council-votes-for-laman-street-figs-to-face-chop/2270935.aspx
On 21st June 2011 the Bureau of Meteorology warned of wind gusts of 110 km/h buffeting the Hunter ahead of a strong cold front. Suddenly the weather becomes interesting because once again the Laman Street Fig trees in Newcastle are fighting for their lives. Statewide Mutual, who insures Newcastle City Council sent a letter of demand – the trees must be removed by 31st August 2011 unless Council can provide new evidence that the trees won’t fall down. If Council does not chop down the trees, any incident will not be covered by insurance, putting the Council between a rock & a hard place.
It seems that Statewide Mutual doesn’t have a copy of the community contracted Arborists Report by Mark Hartley, a renown & respected Arborist in Australia. Looking at his webpage, it’s hard to understand why his opinion that these trees are safe is being ignored. http://treedoc.com.au/ Another respected Arborist, veteran tree specialist Sean Freeman has publicly stated that he supports Mark Hartley’s assessment of the Laman Street Figs after viewing the report & inspecting the trees himself. http://www.theherald.com.au/news/local/news/general/arborist-questions-fig-tree-safety-risk/1951564.aspx
Newcastle Councillor Bob Cook brought the Laman Street Figs back into the spotlight on 31st May 2011 before the letter of demand by Statewide Mutual by calling for the trees removal. He also suggested monitoring the trees with an accelerometer on a number of occasions over 6-15 months for a cost of up to $100,000. The cost alone is enough to make most people concede defeat.
An accelerometer measures the movement of the tree when pulled, mimicking the conditions of high winds. Thing is, Mother Nature has tested the trees for free on 4 occasions since the Pasha Bulka storm in June 2007. This storm was described as a ‘mini cyclone.’ It beached the oil tanker Pasha Bulka aground on Nobbies Beach & smashed Newcastle, yet the Laman Street trees standing today made it through that storm (and others since) unaffected.
Clr Cook has written to the community saying they are “in denial” & “clutching at straws.”
http://www.theherald.com.au/news/local/news/general/laman-trees-under-threat-again/2179599.aspx
More than 10,000 people signed a petition to save the the Laman Street Fig trees & night vigils were held on 69 occasions
Gloriously beautiful trees which are a huge asset to Newcastle
On Tuesday 17th August 2010 7 out of 12 Newcastle City Councillors went down in history as being the crew who voted to remove the 14 iconic, beautiful & very healthy Hills Figs outside the Newcastle Art Gallery along Laman Street Newcastle.
Why, because Newcastle Council says they are dangerous & are likely to fall. Except around 6 weeks ago, they had the NSW Governor Marie Bashir chauffeur-driven to the door of the Art Gallery & the official car remained parked under the killer trees for the evening.
Of course nothing happened. Nor did anything happen with the Pashar Bulka storm that produced incredibly high winds & caused much destruction throughout Newcastle. Nor did anything happen with the 2 recent bad storms & high winds that hit Newcastle.
If you want to read a story of intrigue, lack of transparency, weird ideas, healthy trees with no roots, a community being run rings around, I’d recommend spending the evening reading Save Our Figs & Other Trees of Newcastle – http://saveourfigs.wordpress.com/ & the post written on the night of Newcastle Council’s decision – http://saveourfigs.wordpress.com/2010/08/18/i-know-where-you-can-get-some-good-mulch-17-8-2010/#more-2047
The very last option Newcastle Council gave the community was a single row of Liquid ambers. Really? A tree known to have large invasive roots that also grow near the surface. They are very large deciduous trees that not only drop a very large amount of leaves in Autumn, they also drop a large amount of round spiked seeds that do not decay well leaving ‘lumps’ under lawns. Liquid ambers are also known to drop branches easily in storms.
These trees will not provide food for the numerous flying-foxes & birds that used the Laman Street Figs as a home & source of food for many decades.
How will replacing the 14 Hills Figs with very large trees known to have large & invasive roots improve the situation? How would tons of leaves dropping outside the Art Gallery in Autumn improve the situation? Wouldn’t the leaves & ball-like seeds create a public injury risk? Wouldn’t a tree known to drop branches during storms create a public injury risk? This idea was a good as grinding the trees into stumps & carving them into famous Newcastle citizens. See – http://savingourtrees.wordpress.com/2010/07/17/a-plan-to-turn-newcastles-laman-street-figs-into-sculpted-stumps/
Now they say they will replace the current Hills Figs with a single row of Hills Figs down the centre of the road, but don’t say when this will happen.
Newcastle City Council received 400 submissions about this Laman Street Figs from the community. 96% of those people said, “Keep the Figs.” They were ignored. I predict the community is going to go ape about this & Newcastle City Council will get the lumber jacks in as fast as possible to end the matter for good, except people have long memories.
My original post about the Laman Street Figs can be found here – http://savingourtrees.wordpress.com/2010/04/21/newcastles-iconic-laman-street-fig-trees-at-risk/
You can read the follow-up post written on 1st September 2010 about the Independent Arborist Report by clicking here – http://savingourtrees.wordpress.com/2010/09/01/independent-arborist-report-for-newcastles-laman-street-figs/
Gloriously beautiful trees which are a huge asset to Newcastle
The community tree preservation group Save Our Figs (SoF) based in Newcastle NSW has an acute issue that is about to be decided upon by Newcastle City Council. The Council wants to remove 13 eighty year old Hill’s Figs that line Laman Street & top Civic Park. SoF has been lobbying Newcastle Council to search for other options rather than chop down these phenomenally beautiful Fig trees & replace them with trees that Newcastle Council have not nominated as yet.
From the SoF petition - Laman Street is Newcastle’s most beautiful street. Newcastle City Council believes the 13 figs in the street are likely to fall down in the next 5 – 15 years. They have based this on the advice of a single arborist. The council is considering no other option than felling the trees & we believe alternatives need to be examined such as closing the street to vehicles &/or pedestrians or closing the street in storms. As it is a non-residential & non-commercial street the chance of injury by a falling tree is remote & the trees are an integral part of Newcastle’s identity.
and I complained about hammering nails into trees....
We don’t have a comparable tree site in Marrickville LGA. Newcastle has many Fig trees, but the Laman Street avenue of Fig trees, being in the centre of town, are truly memorable because they are particularly beautiful trees. Naturally, when a Council wants to remove trees like these that have so much history behind them, the community is going to be upset. I doubt there would be many people in Newcastle who don’t know the Laman Street Fig trees & most hold them dear to their heart.
I have been in regular contact with Caitlin Raschke who runs Save Our Figs since the campaign started. Over Easter, we visited & went to look at the Fig trees in Laman Street. I hadn’t seen them in 23 years, which was the last time I went to this street as part of my employment at that time. I remember how stunned I was when the taxi dropped me off & I looked up at these fantastic trees. They haven’t changed & the feeling you get when you stand in Laman Street had just as much impact this time as it did all those years ago. The only thing that had changed was Civic Park, which to my mind, had deteriorated significantly. Apart from the fantastic fountain, much of Civic Park seems uncared for, particularly the memorial grove for fallen soldiers & there seemed to be less trees than I remember.
I also saw Tyrell Street, which lost a few Hill’s Figs during a major storm a few years ago. Newcastle Council removed a number of Figs along this street & replaced them with Tuckaroos. To me, the result looks like a scar.
Is this a practice stump? It's located the beginning of the avenue of spectacular Hills Figs in Laman Street
It is heartbreaking to think that the Laman Street Hill’s Fig trees will be chopped down. I am in total agreement with Caitlin when she says everything possible should be done to save these iconic trees.
In Europe & especially America this would happen as a norm. All sorts of options would be canvassed & money would be spent to save & care for trees like these which give so much back to the community in terms of air quality, carbon sequestration, pollution removal, beauty, history & homes & food for wildlife, including bats. Just last night I was reading how Fig trees can be stabilized & the risk of them falling can be dramatically reduced by using peat-filled pipes. These days some Councils chop off the roots that grow from the branches of Fig trees & descend to the ground. It is these roots the tree uses to stabilize itself, as it grows larger. If you put peat-filled pipes from the root stumps along the branches, the tree will rapidly grow new roots down through the pipe & into the ground. Isn’t nature clever? I guess, in time, you could cut open & remove the pipe if it was made from PVC.
Laman Street is very popular for wedding photographs because the street trees are so beautiful
The Laman Street Fig trees also provide a strong sense of presence to such central & important buildings such as the Art Gallery & others located here. Importantly, the trees provide a popular place to get married & have wedding photos taken. Later, their children can still see, touch & play where Mum & Dad were on their wedding day. I know this is a strong emotion for many people because of the feedback I have received about the St Stephen’s Hill’s Fig in Newtown. Those who had their wedding photo taken under this tree love it in a special & strong way. The tree or trees gets incorporated into the story of the relationship/marriage. This is not surprising because human beings have always associated trees with strength, longevity & wisdom & this is easily transferred over to hopes surrounding a marriage.
I must say that, like only a few people outside the LGA know how beautiful our Cooks River really is, not many people know how beautiful Newcastle is. I wanted to pack up & move to Cooks Hill immediately. The beaches are stunning & wild, the streets are clean, the traffic is not like traffic, droves of people were out in the sunshine, the cafés were full to bursting & the trees, well I could go on about them for hours. Newcastle is a naturally beautiful place because of the hills, the river & the beaches. But without all those large & spectacular trees in parks & on roadsides it wouldn’t be as beautiful. Newcastle could be called the City of Fig Trees because they have so many gorgeous Fig trees scattered about. In my opinion, these trees make this city special.
Please pay a visit to Save Our Figs. There is an online petition open to anyone who cares about these trees. http://www.gopetition.com/petitions/laman-street-figs.html 2,500 Newcastle residents have already signed both a paper petition & the online petition & that is 2% of the Newcastle community.
Like Saving Our Trees, there has been no advertising. It has been all word of mouth, which I think makes it stronger as a community campaign. There are no bells & whistles to draw people in, just a love for trees & a wish that trees be saved from the chain-saw.
I would read http://saveourfigs.wordpress.com/ from the beginning. But if you find this idea too time consuming, the following pages are notable. Caitlin’s reply to a comment gives a run down on the history of the community campaign in the following link – http://saveourfigs.wordpress.com/2010/04/02/barcelona-just-as-barbaric-as-newcastle/
The Save Our Figs home page also gives a timeline of what has been happening during the campaign – http://saveourfigs.wordpress.com/
You can read the follow-up post written on 1st September 2010 about the Independent Arborist Report by clicking here http://savingourtrees.wordpress.com/2010/09/01/independent-arborist-report-for-newcastles-laman-street-figs/
7th October 2011 – As this seems to be the post people are coming for information, the following posts offer more recent posts about the Laman Street Figs starting with the Councillors vote to kill the trees -
10th October 2011 - Newcastle community fights to save the Laman Strett Street Figs – http://savingourtrees.wordpress.com/2011/10/10/newcastle-community-fight-to-save-the-laman-street-fig-trees/
4th October 2011 – The final vote is to kill the trees. http://savingourtrees.wordpress.com/2011/10/04/newcastle-councillors-vote-to-kill-the-laman-street-fig-trees/
13th September 2011- The Figs get some fairness – http://savingourtrees.wordpress.com/2011/09/13/laman-street-figs-get-some-fairness/
29th August 2011 – Not mulch yet - http://savingourtrees.wordpress.com/2011/08/29/not-mulch-yet/
26th August 2011 – Laman Street Figs Next Life will be Mulch - http://savingourtrees.wordpress.com/2011/08/26/the-laman-street-figs-next-life-will-be-mulch/
3rd August 2011 – Mediation for the Figs -http://savingourtrees.wordpress.com/2011/08/03/mediation-for-laman-street-fig-trees/
26th August 2011 – The Newcastle Councillors voted on the fate of the Laman Street Figs last night – http://bit.ly/n1BNrK
Tree-lined shopping strip in Newcastle CBD - This is what I would like our shopping strips in Marrickville LGA to look like - proof it can be done
Cooks Hill Newcastle with Stockton in the distance - note the many large street trees
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