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Wednesday, May 31, 2023
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TO THE GROUND: Joshua Wood, with golden retriever Reef, questioned why this Wandiligong apple tree needed to be cut down by Ausnet in their latest round of tree pruning.
Making the cut
WANDILIGONG residents are incensed by a recent round of tree pruning through the village, allegedly by power company AusNet, with a treasured apple tree suffering a particularly hard prune. The tree on Centenary Avenue, which local residents said is one of the oldest apple trees in the valley, is now a stump just above ground level. Stems from the base of the trunk show a few leaves, but they are the tree’s only signs of life. “That just looks like it’s been butchered,” local Joshua Wood said while he was out walking his golden retriever. “It definitely takes a little bit of the beauty out of the out of the area.” Examination of the stump and log showed the inside of the tree was quite rotten, however, locals said the tree appeared healthy before being sawn down.
Removal of beloved tree leaves locals stumped p BY BRODIE EVERIST beverist@ nemedia.com.au
President of the Wandiligong Preservation Society Robyn Wood, said the tree was half the height of the powerlines and questioned why it was cut down. “That decision shouldn’t have been theirs,” she said. “They certainly didn’t have any regard for this tree that was doing no one, or the powerlines, any harm.” Locals were unable to specify the tree’s age, but Ms Wood described it as “ancient,” and said the Centenary Avenue tree was larger than an apple tree she has at home that she believes was planted in the 1930s. “It still fruited and you’d smile
when you went by because here was this old apple tree by itself doing its thing,” she said. Ms Wood also criticised the pruning done at her Morses Creek Road property, also allegedly done by Ausnet, which saw large branches dropped on her wire fence. “When you have work done by an arborist, which I have done over the years, they take a bit of care - they don’t even drop anything on the garden nearby, let alone wreck your fence,” she said. Wandiligong resident Kevin Woods said the recent ministrations of AusNet contractors to protect a nearby powerline had left the liquidambar tree on his property looking like a “straight stick”. He suggested they could have left some arm-length branches to give the tree some balance.
“That was a beautiful tree - now it looks like a lamp post,” he said. The tree pruning in Wandiligong follows a recent outcry over similar pruning in Harrietville some weeks ago along the avenue of trees at the northern entrance to the town. An AusNet spokeswoman said the Centenary Avenue apple tree was removed as it was rubbing and putting pressure on the aerial wire that supports the adjacent power pole. “AusNet undertakes pruning and vegetation works in the interest of community safety and reliability of the electrical supply,” she said. “The assessment and cutting functions of our vegetation management program are undertaken by personnel that have obtained nationally recognised qualifications.”
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