Dear Brisbane, hands off our trees. Regards, Grafton

SO YOU think you've got the right to be THE Jacaranda city? Here's why Grafton will always be home to the Jacaranda Festival...

Erica Power, 11 and Cooper Stephenson, 8 of Grafton Public School sound the trumpet during a break from the school concert held in See Park for the Jacaranda Festival. Picture: Adam Hourigan Photography

SO BRISBANE, you think you've got the right to be THE Jacaranda city, hey? You discover you had the first Jacaranda tree and suddenly it's all yours, right?

>> RELATED STORY: Why Brisbane, not Grafton, is the original jacaranda capital of Australia

Wrong.

For starters, Brisbane may have more jacarandas, but also has at a rough estimate, 100 times the people of Grafton. Unless there's a tree-lined street every 54 metres popping up soon, I think we've got you covered per capita.

The entrances to Grafton are lined with jacarandas, where even where our main bridge takes a 45 degree left turn just to greet visitors with a canopy of purple flowers. The last time I looked, the Gateway and the Story Bridge were canopies of cold, hard steel, just like your hearts.

And where's your spirit at this time of year? For more than 80 years, the good folk of Grafton have danced around maypoles in the streets, celebrating our trees. I've been told the only poles that are hidden in the Brisbane CBD aren't exactly worthy of a family festival, if you know what I mean.

>

Besides, you already have a Jacaranda festival. Goodna celebrates with a little explosion of colour each year, and your councillors already tried to take our festival name years ago. But guess what? We own it. You're lucky we even let you utter the words, but that's how nice we are.

Just be happy celebrating your Brisbane Festival, which culminates in that wonderful celebration of the river that flows through your city. The cute little thing it is. I mean, it's not a patch on the Clarence River, but like the State of Origin trophy, we'll let you have that one too.

>> SEE ALSO: International tourists in Grafton for the Jacaranda Festival are doing whatever it takes to capture the perfect jacaranda photos including playing 'chicken' with traffic on some of the city's busiest roads. Is this an accident waiting to happen?

Originally published as Dear Brisbane, hands off our trees. Regards, Grafton