SA heatwave conditions leads to giant gum trees dropping limbs, including one which crushed a car
A fallen tree branch has crushed tourists’ holiday plans and delivered a timely reminder of the potential danger posed by giant gum trees during extreme heat.
East, Inner Suburbs & Hills
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A fallen tree branch has crushed an Italian couple’s holiday plans and delivered a vivid reminder of the potential danger posed by giant gum trees during the state’s extended dry spell.
The tourists’ tiny Toyota hatchback was no match for a huge limb which sheared from a gum tree on private property about 5pm on Christmas Day and crushed their car which was parked on Glynburn Rd, Kensington Park.
The tree’s owner Silvia Frost, who was not at home when the branch snapped, told The Advertiser yesterday morning that a police officer at the scene told her that the limb also hit a passing car.
“She (the officer) said there was an almighty crunch, she heard it from inside the car,” she said.
She said the tourists, from Torino in Italy’s northwest, had celebrated Christmas Day in Adelaide’s south and were yet to survey the damage.
“I did speak to them, they were shell-shocked and I said to them ‘welcome to Australia’,” she said.
“I feel sorry for them, they bought that car and it was obviously what they were driving around in. They could’ve been killed in that car.”
This week a massive limb from a 100-year-old gum tree crashed next to a playground at popular Mitcham Reserve, a gum dropped a branch at Tusmore Park and another gum tree dropped a branch at the Unley Council chambers carpark.
Nobody was hurt in those incidents.
Ms Frost said her family would usually host Christmas Day in the backyard, but they spent the day at her niece’s house at Glenelg.
She said another of their gums dropped a branch on their house two weeks ago.
She said an arborist inspected the trees two years ago, when they moved into the house, and said they were “fine”. But she now wants the trees removed.
“As far as I’m concerned, I can’t use my backyard and I don’t want my kids playing in the backyard,” she said.
The family will have to apply to Burnside Council to remove the trees, with no guarantee the council will approve the request.
SA MP Frank Pangallo said gum trees stressed during heatwaves were “beautiful but deadly” and urged councils and the State Government to do more to protect the public.
“There should be an urgent review of all vulnerable trees hanging over main roads and in parks, gardens and reserves as some of these trees are killers,” Mr Pangallo said.
“They need to cordon off these gum trees – and there’s so many of them - during extended hot spells to reduce dangers.”
Last week an Irish nurse working at the Royal Melbourne Hospital was killed when a large tree branch fell on a car she was travelling in with two friends in South Melbourne.
A spokesman for the SES said they had responded to quite a few fallen trees and limbs this week.
“The only advice we would give people is to be aware of trees and the risk of falling limbs when they are around trees and parking cars,” he said.
Burnside Council spokeswoman Jenny Barrett said it was not unusual for trees to lose a branch after extreme heat.
