WILLIAMSTOWN and Newport residents are disgusted at trees being ringbarked and poisoned to give people better bay and city views.
They are demanding Hobsons Bay Council impose stronger deterrents to stop people vandalising trees.
Newport resident Tony Keunen said he was walking his dog when he noticed a tree had been hacked in the Strand at Williamstown.
“Obviously, someone’s just stood there with a saw and hacked in through the tree all the way around the bark. And what that does is it stops . . . just stops basically the water circulation of the tree, and the tree will die.”
Mr Keunen said it had obviously been done to afford someone a city view. “There’s no other reason that somebody would want to kill off a tree. I just think it’s appalling, really.”
The council has erected a sign at the site of the tree which states: “Tree vandals have been destroying your environment.”
But Mr Keunen believes the council should go further.
“What I suggested to council is they should go and plant three trees in its place or at least follow the lead of some of the other bayside councils: for trees that have been damaged like this and cut down they’ve actually just simply draped quite horrible ugly orange plastic mesh over the thing so that people don’t get a benefit from chopping the tree down or damaging or killing off the tree.”
Resident Geoff van Wyngaarden said it was disgusting. “People over Hampton, Sandringham way have had big fines, the ones that have been caught.”
Friends of Williamstown Wetlands vice-president Richard Leppitt said that while the council had erected boards at the sites of tree vandalism, the signs were not big enough to block people’s view of the bay or the city.
Late last year, someone killed a tree in Williamstown’s Jawbone Reserve, presumably for a better view of the bay.
“They drilled holes in it and put poison in it,” Mr Leppitt said.
“What some councils have done is erect very large screens in front of the trees so that they can’t see anything.”
Mayor Angela Altair said tree vandalism in harbour-front suburbs was an increasingly common problem, with Canada Bay Council in Sydney offering a $100,000 reward to catch tree vandals.
“I’m only too happy to look into it further and see what more we can do because it’s certainly a serious problem among coastal councils across Australia.”
