Haileybury College fined $140k over groundskeeper’s tree branch death

The Melbourne private school has been fined $140,000 over the death of a beloved groundskeeper while he was pruning a dangerous tree.

Haileybury College has been fined over the death of a groundskeeper while he was pruning a tree.

A Melbourne private school has been fined $140,000 for failing to keep staff safe after a much-loved groundskeeper died while pruning a tree with a chainsaw.

Kym Page, 38, suffered catastrophic head injuries after a large eucalyptus branch struck and killed him at Haileybury College’s Berwick campus on Valentine’s Day 2018.

Piles of cut wood, a large branch and two chainsaws, one still running, were found near his body.

The father of two was not wearing a safety helmet or cut-retardant clothing.

The school pleaded guilty to two counts of failing to provide a safe workplace relating to failures to assess the risks and provide information, instruction and training to employees.

County Court Judge Frank Gucciardo said it was a “serious breach of duty” with policies surrounding the use of PPE and chainsaws “lacking” at the school.

“Clearly not enough was done — the risk is very real and grave,” Judge Gucciardo said.

“There was an assumption made that people involved would know what to do and know how to go about it.

“This generality probably led Mr Page to take matters into his own hands.”

Had the school properly instructed and trained Mr Page, he could have taken a more cautious approach, Judge Gucciardo said.

Kym Page, 38, was a groundskeeper at Haileybury College in Berwick.

The father of two was not wearing sufficient PPE when he was killed.

The court heard the school had a Tree Management Plan that kept detailed records of assessments of all trees on the campus.

The manna gum that fell on Mr Page was assessed in 2013, 2016 and 2017 and each time was marked as being a danger with warnings that “no stationary targets to be beneath tree”.

The tree was also assessed as “posing a risk of further branch failures” and it was recommended foliage not be removed.

The school had made the area where the tree was a “no-go zone” but had not roped or fenced it off.

“The classification ‘no-go zone’ was clearly insufficient,” Judge Gucciardo said.

He said evidence from arborists indicated the tree-pruning was a job for an expert, despite Mr Page having worked at the school since 2002 and being deemed the most experienced of the groundsmen there.

The fine Judge Gucciardo issued did not come close to the maximum $1.5m penalty that could have been imposed on each charge.

But Judge Gucciardo said he had taken into consideration that the school had offered to wipe the more than $1m in fees and educate Mr Page’s two children through to year 12.

He also considered the school’s remorse, early guilty plea and the fact it had made significant changes since the incident, including hiring a full-time safety adviser.

The court heard Mr Page was a “kind-hearted gentle giant loved by all that knew him” and was very well respected in the Haileybury school community.

He is survived by his grief-stricken wife Catherine Agrotis and their two children.

In her victim impact statement, Ms Agrotis revealed how her husband’s workplace death “defied logic and sense”.

“He had gone to work, we had been messaging and talking most of the day, and his life had now ended — our lives together had ended,” she said.

“No one sees their partner off to work thinking they will not be coming home ever again.”