Page 13: Australia Post boss forks out $200k to remove tree from Hawthorn pad

OUR head postie needs his hefty $5.6 million pay cheque to settle his gardening bill — he is forking out an eye-watering $200,000 to remove just one tree from his Hawthorn property.

• Australia Post boss Ahmed Fahour earned $5.6 million last year

HEAD postie AHMED FAHOUR needs his hefty $5.6 million pay cheque after all. That’s if his gardening bill is anything to go by.

Australia’s highest-paid public servant is forking out an eye-watering $200,000 to remove just one tree from his Hawthorn pile.

A planning permit was approved by Boroondara City Council this week for the removal of “one scattered tree” from the $20 million-plus estate.

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Ahmed Fahour needs his hefty $5.6 million pay cheque after all if his gardening bill is anything to go by. Picture: David Geraghty

A council spokeswoman confirmed the permit to remove a “semi-mature river red gum”.

Fahour has been hard at it with renovations on the 1.1ha property, spending about $4.5 million since he bought it back in 2013 from Globe International co-founder PETER HILL.

Touted as one of Melbourne’s finest, the Gothic-style riverside homestead was built in 1846 for JAMES PALMER, the first Speaker of the Victorian Legislative Council.

Then known as Burwood, the estate was later owned by theatre entrepreneur GEORGE COPPIN and was even used as a finishing school, turning out smart young ladies who could arrange flowers and cook.

Aussie Post chief Ahmed Fahour. Picture: David Smith

There are five buildings on the estate, including a hall, an annex and stables of convict-mined bluestone converted into a guesthouse, a two-storey school home, which the finishing school ladies had to run in order to graduate, oh and the mansion.

Thankfully the gum due for the chop is in the remote southeast corner of the property near the tennis court and is not heritage listed.

Over on the front lawn sits another river red gum, which has ancient indigenous canoe scarring.

What a week for the Postmaster who might feel like paddling off down the Yarra after being told publicly by the Prime Minster that he was being paid too much. Australia Post’s chairman will now have to explain the largesse to a Senate committee.

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