The smashed Mercedes and a community fight over two trees

“If a tree falls in [Avalon street] Ruskin Rowe and doesn’t hit a Mercedes, does it make a sound?”

That’s the arresting opening line of a short film examining the fight to save two towering 60-year-old gum trees in a majestic tree-lined street on Sydney’s affluent northern beaches.

Canopy Keepers members (from left) Dan Ravich, Deb Collins and Chelsey Baker are among those fighting to save the flooded gums in Ruskin Rowe, Avalon.Credit: Rhett Wyman

Now, Northern Beaches Council is poised to decide the fate of the two flooded gums (Eucalyptus grandis) after an extraordinary community campaign.

The campaign kicked off after two trees in Ruskin Rowe were felled last May on council’s orders following a risk assessment.

A further two, including the tree that caused damage to the luxury car thanks to a falling branch, were also slated for removal, but the community has mobilised to save them.

Deb Collins, convener of independent community group Canopy Keepers, which works to preserve and regenerate Pittwater’s tree canopy, said there was “no scientific evidence to suggest that just because a branch falls off tree A, that another branch is going to fall off tree A next year … or the year after”.

The “owner of the damaged car to our knowledge didn’t take umbrage with council” or seek to have the trees removed, she said, and the two trees removed were further up the street.

Collins said that “quite possibly those [first two] trees did have issues … but we were not convinced the next two trees had to come down”.

A peaceful blockade halted the felling of the remaining two trees.

“Then a month-long blockade went through June with a vigil every day,” Collins said.

Northern Beaches Council is poised to decide the fate of the two flooded gums.Credit: Rhett Wyman

“I’ve lived in Avalon about 12 years and I’ve never seen … that level of interest. It was a combination of various environmental groups … and quite a number of residents. Probably over 50-odd people were involved.”

Two arborist members of Canopy Keepers believed the two remaining trees did not need to be felled. Community crowdfunding enabled a third report, from senior independent consulting arborist Mark Hartley, to be commissioned.

Hartley concluded there was “nothing that suggests that the risk associated with either of these trees is outside the broadly acceptable range”.

Canopy Keepers has pointed to a number of major advantages in keeping tree canopy intact, including lowering temperatures and providing crucial animal habitat and continuous pathways for wildlife.

The council has now commissioned another independent arborist to assess the remaining two trees. That report is expected next month.

The film about the saga, Just Two Trees, was released on Monday. It is produced by the award-winning local filmmaker Bruce Walters, co-creator of the popular Avalon Now web series commissioned by Domain.com.au that satirised northern beaches life a decade ago.

Walters, now living in Bilgola Plateau, has called the northern beaches home for 20 years and said he has become accustomed to “the sound of chainsaws”.

He was initially approached by a friend in Canopy Keepers “to make something … almost as a way of remembering these trees”. No money changed hands for the film.

Participants in the short film included (from left) Canopy Keepers’ Deb Collins, local resident Arabella Lockhart, powerful owl expert Andrew Gregory, wildlife carer and rescuer Tom Borg and local resident Dave Goudie. Credit: Rhett Wyman

“The feeling was that the fight was lost,” Walters said. “I and other people were very much of the view that if we’re going to do something, then let’s do something with the aim of not losing this fight.”

Greens councillor Miranda Korzy, who represents the Pittwater ward of Northern Beaches Council and appears in the documentary, said the Ruskin Rowe campaign “wasn’t just about” those two “magnificent” trees.

“It’s also … the community putting a stake in the ground and saying, ‘This far, and no further. We want stronger protections for these trees.’”

Korzy believed the council – which was poised on Tuesday night to release a new tree management policy for public comment – had been listening. A proposed review of tree stewardship practices was “a really positive step as well”, she said.

Ruskin Rowe residents Imogen Hajdu, Paul Johnson and Arabella Lockhart want the trees saved.Credit: Rhett Wyman

Korzy said she was “really pleased” council staff appeared to have “taken on board” the community’s message.

Collins said Canopy Keepers shared “Miranda’s optimism and appreciate council is listening”.

A council spokesperson said the northern beaches “has an estimated 12 million trees, one of the greatest tree canopies in metropolitan Sydney, and we continue to take action to protect, retain and maintain these trees”.

“In fact, LIDAR [Light Detection and Ranging] data indicates we have increased tree coverage on the northern beaches by 485 hectares (or 485 football fields) and have been planting over 5000 trees yearly since 2019. However, the state government’s current planning framework provides for multiple avenues for the removal of trees on private property which has led to a decline of canopy on private land.

“Although sometimes tough, we need to balance our goal of preserving trees with the need to protect the community when experts advise they pose unacceptable risks to safety and infrastructure. Wherever possible we try to replace removed trees with others.”

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