Last week Protectors of Public Lands Victoria Inc. (PPL VIC) were scandalised to learn that Corangamite Shire Council in Victoria’s Western District appears hell bent on implementing plans to axe the entire two-kilometre-long avenue of heritage-listed elms through Camperdown’s town centre. Already Council has sanctioned removal of 74 of the 500 or so magnificent hundred-year-old English Elms. We had thought that the moratorium declared last April on removal of the elms would hold and that Councillors would come to their collective senses and abandon plans to perpetrate this gross act of environmental vandalism. Council is flying in the face of national and international climate advice on global warming, namely that we must retain old trees to combat pollution and the creation of heat islands in our cities.
Friends of Camperdown Elms (FOCE), a local community group and a PPL VIC member, together with town’s residents propose to rally next week in a last ditch attempt to save Camperdown’s elm avenue, which is valued as a great ornament to the town and is considered to be of immense social, historical and environmental value to Victoria. The FOCE commissioned Mr Rob Galbraith, a leading arborist, who has written an excellent report on the heritage value and condition of Camperdown’s elm avenue.
In his report released in early
April 2007 Mr Galbraith comments: “Overwhelmingly
the trees are in very good health…in comparison to the majority of elms one
sees in Melbourne, most elms throughout the avenue have densely foliated
canopies of deep green, comparatively free of pests and disease.” He goes on to write: “The great
attributes of most of this avenue should not be jeopardized…(these) include its
great length, double row nature, large individual tree size, generally good
condition and relative uniformity (marred unfortunately by the creation of
large gaps where trees have recently been removed). Above all, there is the
abundance of large old majestic elms of good condition in an avenue setting.
The presence of this last characteristic in itself almost certainly elevates
this avenue to world significance, given the devastation wrought on the
European and American Elms by Dutch Elm Disease.”
Julianne Bell, PPL VIC Secretary,
says: “Melbourne has been famous for its beautiful avenues of elms but these
are at risk with the prolonged drought and overzealous, axe-happy bureaucrats
in local Councils. It is, therefore, imperative that we maintain and protect
avenues of elms in country towns in Victoria, such as in Camperdown. Just eighteen months ago in Melbourne we
witnessed the “Blue Elms Affair”.
Disaster was narrowly averted and a fine elm avenue saved when an
“installation artist”, funded by then Arts Minister Delahunty, was stopped at
the last minute from painting 47 elms in Melbourne’s Yarra Park electric blue.
The threat to Camperdown’s elms is much greater. We may well attract
international condemnation for our cavalier attitude to elms in our care.”
Photos of the Camperdown Elm Avenue and the arborist’s report can be provided on request.
The FOCE plus supporters in Camperdown, backed by PPL VIC, will rally next Tuesday 25 September 2007. The protest will start at 12:30 pm (people are asked to gather at 12 noon). It will be held in Camperdown outside the Corangamite Shire Council Offices in the plaza next to the clock tower. We will be calling on the Council at the rally then at its meeting to be held that afternoon to abandon plans to destroy the town’s elm avenue and to adopt Mr Galbraith’s recommendations outlined in his report. We also plan to make further representations to the State Government to fulfil its duty of care to protect avenues of trees included on the official Victorian State Heritage Register.
Media Contact: Julianne Bell PPL VIC Secretary 0408022408 or 98184114 Email jbell5@bigpond.com