Herbicide in Annandale

Two iconic gums on Breillat Street, Annandale have been poisoned, resulting in their being cut down on April 13.

The pair of gums, one a silvergum and the other a rough-bark, were reportedly in good health, until locals became aware of a highly toxic smell coming from around the trees.

“They were perfectly healthy,” said Máire Sheehan, a former Mayor of Leichhardt and resident of Breillat Street. “I talked to the arborist and there’s no doubt that they were poisoned. Somebody has wilfully poisoned them and it’s really quite tragic because they were big trees that had birdlife and their own ecosystem.”

Ian Moss, guitarist and occasional singer of Cold Chisel and long-time resident of Breillat Street, was stunned by the loss of the two gums.

“It’s very disappointing to lose a tree and it’s infinitely more disappointing to know that it happened at human hands,” Mr Moss said. “I’ve lived on this street for around 10 years and I was born and raised in Alice Springs where we had river gums, and the gums outnumbered people. The gum is part of Australia, it’s part of us.”

Mr Moss talked of his childhood home where his parents had three gums in the backyard.

“We worshipped them, the smell of the eucalypt, the sound of the wind in the tree. This gum [on Breillat Street] was the queen of the street… I would sit at night and watch the moonlight through the leaves and the breeze flowing through its leaves and enjoying that sound. It brought me peace and serenity.”

Mr Moss speculated that something trivial had brought about the poisoning of the gums.

“I’ve no idea who would have done it or why, but I’m totally confounded that they would go to such lengths.”

Ms Sheehan said that she could think of only a few poorly-motivated reasons as to why the trees were poisoned.

“The only motive we can think of is that somebody wanted to kill the tree in order to stop leaves falling on their veranda, or for a view… maybe someone thought the tree was affecting their lifestyle by not being able to see past it when they looked out from their veranda.

“It’s a very wilfully ignorant thing to do.”

Now residents must wait and see if the poison will continue to spread into more backyards.

“The problem now is that the poison, which is highly toxic, has got into the ground, and it’s flowing across from the first tree to the second and is continuing to flow. The question now is, will it get any more trees?” Ms Sheehan said.