Far too beautiful & environmentally valuable to chop down

Word on the street is that two gorgeous trees are to be removed from the Cooks River Valley Garden at Tempe Reserve simply because they don’t fit into Marrickville Council’s plan.

The Cooks River Valley Garden at Tempe Reserve is a long, thin patch of land behind the Tempe Jets Sporting Club with a concrete pedestrian path running through it.  Marrickville Council’s website says the following about the Garden – “This newly established native garden at Tempe Reserve was designed to showcase the indigenous plants of the Cooks River Valley for local landscapers & residents. All the plants used in the garden have been propagated from local seed stock by the community nurseries in Marrickville, Randwick & Strathfield. The first plant was put in the ground in September 2001 & the garden is still a work in progress.”

It’s a nice place & it is obvious that a fair amount of work has gone into creating it both by Council staff & community volunteers. Many of the trees & plants have an identifying plaque on the ground adding to the experience.

Showing a longer view as you walk through the Cooks River Valley Garden toward the trees

The trees to be chopped down are Podocarpus, also known as the Illawarra plum, Plum pine, Brown pine or Yellowwood.  This is a conifer species that was around 245-million-years ago when dinosaurs roamed the earth. The Wollomi pine which dates from that era is much revered.

Podocarpus are evergreen rainforest tree indigenous to the East Coast of Australia & they like to grow near water.  They grow to between 25-36 metres tall & can eventually develop a trunk up to 1.5 metres diameter.  They produce deep purple/blue fleshy fruit called cones in 2 segments.  The fruit are juicy, high in Vitamin C, have a plum-like taste with a hint of pine & can be made into jam, jelly, sauces & fruit tarts. They are apparently well regarded as bush food & complement garlic & chilli in Asian fusion cooking.

There needs to be a male tree within pollination range for a female to produce fruit.  The fruit of the Podocarpus provides a great food source for a variety of urban wildlife, including flying foxes & parrots, which to my mind makes them particularly important.  Butterflies also like this tree.  These trees do not spread easily & are more likely to stand as one or two forest trees.  They can be propagated from seeds collected around the base of the tree & from cuttings.

The Podocarpus in the Cooks River Valley Garden are visually impressive, especially at the moment, because of their bright lime-green new growth & because they are different from the usual Banksias, Gums & Casuarinas in this area.  These particular trees are around 12-metres tall & both are healthy.  They are to be removed because they are not indigenous to the Cooks River Valley, even though they are indigenous to the East Coast of Australia.

While I really like the idea of a mini-botanical garden of the indigenous plants of the Cooks River Valley, I question the necessity to chop down two lovely trees of this size simply because they don’t fit into ‘The Plan.’  In fact I think it is crazy to chop down healthy park trees that provide habitat & food for urban wildlife.

Leaf litter beneath one of the Podocapus trees

Another reason for removal was that these trees drop leaves & prevent other plants from growing underneath. Yes, they do drop leaf litter. However, the leaf litter we observed was collected in a small area around the trunk.

All through the Cooks River Valley Garden are Casuarinas, which drop copious amounts of needles year round. Casuarinas needles form a thick impenetrable mat in a large area around the tree.  Nothing, except more Casuarinas can grow under Casuarina needle matting. I think that, as long as Council lets dozens of Causarinas with their thick beds of needles underneath to flourish all along the river parklands & in the Cooks River Valley Garden, there is no reason to remove the two Podocarpus trees.

Cooks River Valley Garden showing extensive Casuarinas needle mat cover with native violets as understory planting in the foreground. Note that there is a relatively new stump in the top left-hand corner.

Tempe Reserve has more grass than trees.  It is an incredibly windy place that does not get the benefit of windbreaks from trees except in a couple of small areas.  I love Tempe Reserve & think Council has created something amazing in such a short amount of time from what was a landfill tip.  However, I don’t agree with the removal of 2 healthy trees for superficial reasons.

Every tree is important, especially because of climate change. Trees take years to grow to any decent size.  In this LGA they often die before they reach a decent size due to a lack of water or vandalism.  Here we have two trees that are great for wildlife in a park that needs both tall trees & food-producing trees for urban wildlife.

Plaque giving description of a tree in the Cooks River Valley Garden.

Wouldn’t it be better to label the trees with a plaque on the ground saying these two trees are not indigenous to the Cooks River Valley, however, as they are healthy trees already on site & beneficial to wildlife, they have been retained – AND – that these trees are a species that were growing back in the age of the dinosaurs.  This information certainly grabbed my interest so surely it would do so for others, especially kids.

I doubt that people would care that the Cooks River Valley Garden has two intruders. They are more likely to do what we did & admire such beautiful trees.

I hope that Marrickville Council offers the community an opportunity to comment on any proposal to remove them by putting a Notice of Removal on their website before chopping down these trees.

Google map of Tempe Reserve showing the location of the 2 trees. Although the map is probably a few years old, it still gives a fair view of the amount of trees versus grass in Tempe Reserve