Australian councils are a by-word for pettifogging bureaucracy obsessed with enforcing its own Byzantine, nonsensical, rules. Something as simple as building a backyard deck can involve endless rounds of paperwork and fees, and woe betide you if you put something in the wrong wheelie bin.
Let alone plant a tree in a ‘green’ council’s fiefdom.
Nillumbik Shire Council on Melbourne’s north-eastern fringe, bills itself as the “green wedge shire”. It claims to support the environment and biodiversity and aims to bolster interconnected native habitats across the shire. It encourages residents to get involved with its tree-planting efforts, with a target of 70 per cent of residents caring for nature by 2034.
Just don’t you dare plant any, y’know, native vegetation.
On the side of a gravel road in rolling farmland just beyond Melbourne’s urban fringe, 57 native saplings have been sprayed with white paint, marking them for imminent removal.
The juvenile indigenous trees are to be uprooted within days after Nillumbik Shire Council accused farmer and landscape architect Sarah Hunter of illegally planting them on council land.
Officers for Nillumbik, which brands itself Melbourne’s, have ordered the removal of the saplings, which Hunter planted in an area that the council has designated as a “biolink” that is important in supporting diverse birdlife, and a prime candidate for revegetation.
Just don’t get any ideas about revegetating it with native plants that would support birdlife.
Hunter said she planted the saplings late last year to support local wildlife, and to beautify the farming area. The road corridor, which is lined with hundreds of mature yellow box eucalyptus trees, is a haven for wombats, echidnas and dozens of native bird species […]
The trees are mostly a mix of blackwood, black wattle, silver wattle and hakeas. Hunter said she chose these species because they feature on the Australian Plants Society’s advisory list of fire-retardant and fire-resistant Victorian plants.
Enter the council, in full Kafka mode.
The council argues that the saplings are a fire risk and would interfere with its road-mowing regime.
“While the trees in Middle Hut Road may have been planted with good intent, they have been planted on council-owned road reserve and without council approval,” a council spokesperson said. “This is unfortunately illegal and hinders council’s ability to undertake crucial fire management and fire-mitigation works.”
Such as, I don’t know, planting fire-retardant native plants?
The Age asked Nillumbik council how many times in the past year it had ordered someone to remove vegetation from a road reserve or nature strip, but did not receive an answer […]
A 2013 map for Nillumbik includes the road outside Hunter’s farm as a “stepping stone corridor” for birdlife.
The council map states: “It plays a role in the maintenance of bird diversity in the surrounding area with potential for greatly increased importance through restoration, revegetation and protection of old trees.”
Or, y’know, ripping trees out if they were planted without an approval certificate signed in blood, in triplicate, on the first full moon of the New Year and witnessed by three ‘indigenous elders’ and a teal MP.
