by Cam Lucadou-Wells
The last rites are being called for a 20-metre towering River Red Gum – with workers starting to fell the last of a remnant stand of giant trees in Noble Park on 27 May.
“History is falling before our eyes,” said Greater Dandenong resident Gaye Guest – who watched on after being part of a residents’ campaign to preserve two gum trees on the site of a future apartment tower.
Despite a 1900-strong petition, this was the final blow after 66 River Red Gums in the corridor were cleared to make way for ‘Skyrail’ in 2016.
“This is the end of Noble Park,” Guest says. “Because this ugly building is going to dominate the skyline.
“Too bad for the birdlife and the biodiversity – these are the two remnants from a stand of River Red Gums preserved in 1909.
“This is it.”
She and Isabelle Nash from Greater Dandenong Environment Group bore witness as workers on a ladder platform lopped the top branches and fed them into a chipper.
Earlier, workers removed their 12-month-old protest signs from the perimeter fencing and discarded them in a pile, Guest said.
Nash said she felt devastated and heart-broken that developers weren’t forced to work around the estimated 80-plus years old tree at the edge of the 5.9-hectare site at 51A Douglas Street.
“Hearing the sound of the mulcher is just horrific. It’s a complete disregard for natural life and the life of trees.
“It would have been of benefit to the residents. How beautiful would it be looking out of your fourth-storey unit and seeing the branches of this tree outside the window.”
The trees will make way for a six-storey apartment tower of 97 ‘affordable housing’ units.
It was approved by Planning Minister Sonya Kilkenny, who ordered Greater Dandenong Council to issue a permit despite a 76-car space shortfall.
The council sought legal advice on refusing the removal of the two River Red Gums partly on council land.
It apparently wavered when told the developer could potentially sue for $1 million.
Last year, the council entered an agreement for the developer to offset the tree’s loss with $155,000 for an estimated 15 new trees of 2.5-metres height in Noble Park.
The council argued that retaining the tree would have made the affordable housing project non-viable.
In the Government’s explanatory report, the tower is described as a “priority project” which was expedited to help Victoria’s post-Covid economic recovery.
It would provide “affordable housing in a key location” and extra commercial activity on what was “under-utilised” land.
Guest stated last year that the trees – a remnant of a time when Noble Park was a sanctuary for many species of native vegetation.
“These remnant river red gums are priceless and cannot be replaced in our lifetime or even our children’s lifetime.
“The river red gum at what is now the railway station precinct is the tree under which Noble Park grew as the township held meetings, social events and even church services before the Noble Park Public Hall was built in 1925.
“There is not a time when people cannot remember river red gums in Noble Park, given its close proximity to Mile Creek.”
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