Tonight is soccer training night at Mackey Park & I received a request to report on two issues.
There are now 2 nice park benches for spectators
First, the positive one. Marrickville Council has installed two park benches near the trees along the Richardson Crescent side of Mackey Park. This is a nice & very needed addition to the amenity of the park. The benches will go some way toward providing comfort to the families that watch games & training sessions or those who want to have a rest in the shade.
Second, the not so positive one. Some in the community have told me, & I personally observed, that Council is removing the support stakes from some of the trees planted in last year’s planting season. We have observed that, after the supports are removed, some of the young trees are falling over in the wind. At Mackey Park most of the new trees have been planted in a secure frame. These are thriving. Two of the young Gums near the clubhouse were not in frames, but were supported only by stakes. Council has recently removed the stakes & there is a 50% failure: One of the two Gums, which is about 1.2 metres tall, has bent over badly after the wind & is in serious risk of snapping. It needs emergency attention to re-stake it or provide a frame for it, so that we do not lose a valuable one-year’s growth & another tree.
While I understand that Council may be removing stakes from young trees in order to reuse them & save money, I think it is false economy when the outcome is a high percentage of young tree failure. Please Marrickville Council, save this young tree before it is too late. It would be good if stakes for young trees could be left a while longer. Some stakes & tree protection stay in place for some years. Why do some others need to be removed so early in the life of a tree?
The trunk hasn't broken yet, but the tree needs help quickly if it is to survive.
SAVING OUR TREES - Marrickville municipality 
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November 8, 2011 at 9:21 pm
ArchitectGJA (Ed)
You’d think the cost of the labour to pull out a stake to reuse would be more than the cost of a new stake. Were these stakes the double kind with a figure-8 strap for the tree?
November 8, 2011 at 9:29 pm
Jacqueline
From memory & from looking at the holes tonight these were 4 stakes with hessian strips wound around the outside of the stakes. More to stop the tree from falling over rather than holding the trunk.
November 9, 2011 at 4:57 am
Kristina
oh goodness gracious. Here is a reaction! Marrickville council, please pay attention here. Is this not, yet again, the very simplest of things?! Isn’t it easy? Keep the stakes in. Let the tree grow. When it is bigger & stronger, then take the stakes away. And while you are at it, re-stake a few other ones that need it. Do not waste your initial investments!
November 9, 2011 at 10:48 am
brenda
Great to hear about the park benches being added.
It seems to me that it is false economy to pull out the stakes from these young tress to reuse them in other plantings. It the young trees fall over and die the cost of replacing them would surely be far more that the purchase of more stakes.
November 9, 2011 at 2:11 pm
Jacqueline
Thanks for your comment Brenda. I’m assuming that Council is removing stakes as a cost-saving exercise, but this may not be so.