Ex-news anchor Bill McDonald’s bid to subdivide after bitter dispute with neighbour over tree

A backyard stoush over a gum tree involving former Channel 7 News anchor Bill McDonald has taken another twist.

Bill McDonald’s bitter backyard stoush has taken another twist. Picture: Supplied.

A bitter backyard stoush involving a gum tree has taken another twist as former news anchor Bill McDonald amends a subdivision application for his Windsor property.

Mr McDonald’s next-door neighbour has bowed out of shared plans to subdivide and sold up after they applied to Brisbane City Council together in late 2017 citing plans for “detached residential purposes”.

The council granted the permit to subdivide while a long row between Mr McDonald and another neighbour over a tree was making its way to Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal.

Mr McDonald said his primary concern in having the Tabitha Pendlebury’s 30m eucalyptus grandis removed was the safety of his family, particularly his young son, as the branches hanging over his backyard could fall suddenly.

Ms Pendlebury, who first took out a vegetation protection order on the tree in 2016, believed the former co-anchor of Channel 7 News Brisbane was instead determined to better his view of the Brisbane skyline.

She said she wasn’t privy to Mr McDonald’s application to subdivide at the time of the QCAT battle, but wasn’t surprised.

“I always 100 per cent believed there was another motive outside safety concerns,” Ms Pendlebury said.

“His reaction to the tree never matched the risk.

“He put a playhouse there when he had a huge block to use.”

The tree which was at the centre of a neighbourhood stoush. Picture: Annette Dew

In documents submitted to QCAT and previously obtained by The Sunday Mail, Mr McDonald — a licensed real estate agent — cited both safety concerns and those of his view being inhibited by the growing gum.

The matter ended in compulsory mediation by QCAT which ordered “hazard reduction pruning” in May 2019.

At that time, the other neighbour was already in on Mr McDonald’s plan to subdivide.

They were granted permission to reconfigure their two lots into four with an access easement down their boundary as proposed in an application lodged with the council in December 2017.

“The proposed allotments are being pursued by the applicant to provide for detached residential purposes…” the application stated.

Mr McDonald’s neighbour has since pulled out of the property pact as the McDonalds in May lodged a request to change the development approval.

A letter to the council asked to exclude their neighbour’s lot.

“The proposed changes are functionally the same as the approved development, on a reduced scale,” the letter stated.

The revised plans propose an easement against the McDonald’s boundary to providing vehicle access to the rear lot where Ms Pendlebury’s tree was hanging over the yard.

Mr McDonald declined to comment.

The neighbourhood dispute led Ms Pendlebury to sell in late 2019.

“It’s awkward when there is a level of animosity with your neighbours,” she said.

“It got too much. I didn’t enjoy living there.”

A sign on a neighbour's fence when Tabitha Pendlebury attempted to sell her home.

Ms Pendlebury believes her sale was made more difficult when a sign was posted on another neighbour’s fence which warned potential buyers that the house came with the obligation of “regular maintenance by a level 5 arborist”.

“But I don’t regret protecting the tree,” Ms Pendlebury said.