Tree vandal stalking blue-ribbon suburb

Brisbane City Council has launched an investigation into the suspected poisoning of several trees in parkland in one of the city’s blue-ribbon riverside suburbs.

Poisoned trees in Merthyr Park, New Farm

Brisbane City Council has launched an investigation into the suspected poisoning of several trees in parkland along the millionaire’s row of Oxlade Drive.

The trees in Merthyr Park are adjacent to rich-lister Kevin Seymour’s new luxury development The Oxlade, which is currently under construction. Seymour says he is disappointed with the vandalism and has offered to work with the council to improve the park. There’s no suggestion Seymour or any residents of Oxlade Drive were involved in any wrongdoing.

BCC city standards, community health and safety chair Kim Marx says the council believes the trees may have been illegally poisoned and tampered with.

Poisoned trees in Merthyr Park, New Farm

“This will not be tolerated and our officers are investigating,” says Marx, who points out such trees are protected under the natural assets local law and any deliberate interference was an offence.

Signs informing the public of the suspected poisoning were placed in the park last month asking the community to provide any information they may have on the vandalism.

BCC says reports of interference with protected vegetation are on the rise from 1407 incidents in 2019-20 to 1411 last financial year.

View of the river from the Merthyr Park, New Farm.

Earlier this year, neighbours in Brisbane’s bayside were furious after four trees were attacked with drills and poison on Brisbane’s bayside. The four trees along Falcon Street, Manly had holes bored into their roots before poison was poured down them, resulting in three dying. Last year, a report found that Brisbane faces significant challenges to protect its green canopy and provide shade for residents.

COST CRACKDOWN

Project cost blowouts have been around since the Romans built the aqueducts. But Brisbane-based Octant AI is believed to be one of the first firms to apply artificial intelligence to solve the perennial problem that costs the economy billions each year.

Founded by Oxford graduates David Porter and Cuong Quang, Octant AI has just attracted an $1m investment from local building powerhouse BMD Constructions. Porter, who spent decades in project management, says he considers cost overruns a “social evil” because of the waste.

Porter points to the Sydney light rail project that cost $3bn instead of the originally budgeted $1.5bn as typical of the problem. “That cost over run is equivalent to two or three regional hospitals,” Porter tells your diarist. “You would have to ask whether the money could have been spent elsewhere.”

Scott Power, Executive Director of BMD Group at Southbank, Melbourne.

The company’s AI platform works by looking for patterns in projects to identify problem issues that can be rectified before costs start mounting. The start-up had already worked with the World Bank and the Hong Kong Government. He says the construction industry has been traditionally reluctant to apply new technology but that may be about to change.

“Industries that have improved productivity such as medicine and retail have been quick to adopt new technologies,” he says. “Productivity in the construction industry has not improved since 1947.”

BMD chief executive Scott Power says the group has been using the Octant AI platform on its project work since 2018 and seen significant results.

Octant uses the data from past projects to predict where new projects will possibly run into challenges. “Covid-19 has accelerated the focus on doing things better,” says Power. “There has been an improvement in commercial outcomes on our projects through highly accurate and reliable final cost predictions sooner than traditional methods. We believe the technology to be a game changer.”

Power added the platform also reduced the “optimism bias” of humans who may have a more upbeat prediction about when and how much a particular project will cost.