Tree of Knowledge next on the chopping block
Image: The Tree of Knowledge. Source: Google Street View
BY JORDAN FERMANIS
Plans for the removal of significant trees to pave the way for the CBD and South East Light Rail project have put the historic ‘Tree of Knowledge’ under threat.
In a Randwick Council meeting held last Tuesday the 24th May, members of the Sydney Light Rail Action Group came out in force to lobby for the protection of the historic ‘Tree of Knowledge’ which was planted in the 1860s close to UNSW. The tree is older than the university itself.
Local resident and former UNSW student Sarah Cheer said that “The Tree of Knowledge symbolises all the other trees that are being cut down. It’s so hypocritical.” The Moreton Bay fig is located on the corner of Wansey Rd and High St and according to estimates provided to council is worth $600 000.
In her address to council on behalf of the action group, Ingrid Maganov asked council to consider their ability to prevent the removal of the tree and act on the public’s behalf.
“It’s everyone’s heritage and each of you, stand at the moment in a voluntary position and have promised to be custodians of the City of Randwick and all its natural attributes.”
“There is a public outcry, a public outrage about the environmental destruction caused by the alignment of the CBD and South Eastern Light Rail route,” She said.
Helen Armstrong of the Queensland University of Technology in Brisbane is critical of the light rail project saying it contributes to the Urban Heat Island effect in Sydney’s eastern suburbs.
“Sydney’s SE light rail route has removed the very trees that were doing an outstanding job ameliorating climate impacts.”
“The sequester carbon is important. It will take 150 years for new trees to generate as much carbon as the existing ones”, Armstrong said.
John Bellamy from the Sydney Light Rail Action Group told City Hub that the planned removal of the ‘Tree of Knowledge’ is representative of unimaginative plans for the light rail.
“On the light rail tree plan, it’s tree number 178 and its probably one of the most beautiful trees you’ll ever cast your eyes on.”
“This project shows a lack of knowledge and a lack of creativity and I think this is the last bastion of major, beautiful, significant trees apart from the city. But in Randwick we are trying to save the last bastion of knowledge and we are approaching it in a creative way.”
“We’ve thrown knowledge out the window and with this little symbol we are trying to get it back,” Bellamy said.
Randwick City Greens Councillor Murray Matson agrees, saying that the council needs to find a different solution to the systematic removal of trees.
“If Council wishes to save these two trees it needs to work cooperatively with TfNSW to find an alternative solution involving a local adjustment of the rail or road alignment in both areas. This approach worked for the Council when it saved High Cross Park on the motion of my Greens Colleague Lindsay Shurey,” Clr Matson said.
The council moved to pass the motion to save the Tree of Knowledge. Randwick City Council will have a meeting with tfNSW on Thursday 2nd June where it will propose the eastward realignment of the light rail to preserve the tree.
