Sydney Exponential: Once were leafy green

Saturday, 2 August 2014

Once were leafy green

The 'leafy green northern suburbs' are a bit of a Sydney cliche. But as you fly over Sydney that is indeed what you see: an urban forest with houses and roads and things tucked away underneath. We're rather proud of it, though we do accept there are penalties to be paid in terms of increased fire danger and inconvenience from time to time through interrupted power supplies or traffic hazards. And the odd house gets damaged from time to time, and occasionally - very occasionally - someone does indeed get squashed.

Suddenly the delicate balance between the pro-tree and anti-tree forces seem to be shifting rapidly. There was the shock of the Blue Mountains bushfires late last year. There has been a relaxation of the rules about permitted tree clearing around houses in rural areas. There was the tragic death in Pitt Town Public School's playground a few months ago. There was the election a couple of years ago of an extraordinarily pro-development Hornsby Council. And along the Northern Line railway corridor between Epping and Thornleigh, there has been a 'treemageddon' going on, as huge numbers of mature healthy trees have been removed to make way for a third railway track to speed up goods trains.

Perhaps it was entirely appropriate therefore that my progress to my morning coffee break in Pennant Hills last Saturday was unexpectedly blocked by what was described in a local paper as a 'tree chopping frenzy'. It was the day before National Tree Day, would you believe, and two huge and well loved blue gums were being dispatched.

A week later, and the scene of the crime is marked by floral memorials to those obviously much loved trees. I watched through the cafe window though, as a Hornsby Council worker, disguised as a sulphur crested cockatoo, dismantled even these.