Home among the gum trees? Not so fast

Sheep grazier Donna Winter-Irving believes native grey box gum trees have an image problem.

With their muted grey and green tones and gangly limbs, Winter-Irving says the species’ natural beauty is not immediately obvious at first glance. But the long-time farmer loves the swirling and intricate patterns on grey box bark and the generous canopy the trees cast against the sun.

“Many people see them as fire wood,” she said. “But every tree is individual. They’re majestic. The bark is beautiful.”

On her property at Nagambie, about 90 minutes north of Melbourne, Winter-Irving has planted hundreds of grey box and yellow box gum trees to help reintroduce more of the native species into the landscape. She and her husband, Jim, have also planted wattle varieties to provide mid-storey habitat for birds. At one six-hectare site alone, the couple have planted 350 native trees.

But Winter-Irving is frustrated because while she is working to conserve indigenous flora on her property, just a short drive away near the Nagambie township, several dozen grey box and other native trees are facing the axe.

Winter-Irving said a permit application to remove about 45 trees, some of them more than a century old, at the Elloura housing estate was an unnecessary attempt to clear land for more housing in the rapidly urbanising area.

For more than five years, residents have been fighting to save the trees from being cleared. Several years ago in the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal, locals successfully challenged the Strathbogie Shire’s permit to clear the vegetation.

In 2021, former planning minister Richard Wynne intervened to decide for himself whether the vegetation clearing should proceed. Wynne resigned in mid-2022, and the fate of the trees remains unresolved.

Strathbogie Shire Mayor Claire Ewart-Kennedy said a decision was long overdue.

“I think everyone would admit they’re frustrated,” she said. “It shouldn’t take so long.”

Ewart-Kennedy praised the residents who had fought to protect the trees from development but said more people were moving to Nagambie, and they needed somewhere to live.

“We are very conscious that we don’t want unnecessary removal of native vegetation, but we’re also aware that houses need to be developed. There’s a housing crisis in the area.”

A state government spokeswoman did not give any indication of when a decision would be made about the trees’ fate.

“Any proposal will be considered on its merits, and all submissions will be considered as part of the assessment process,” she said.

However, the spokeswoman confirmed there was an active application for a ministerial permit to remove native vegetation through the Development Facilitation Program. She also said the Department of Transport and Planning was reviewing feedback on the draft Strathbogie planning scheme amendment, including the vegetation permit.

The spokeswoman said an earlier vegetation permit application had been refused after a priority projects standing advisory committee process identified “a number of issues that remain unresolved”.

The Age made multiple attempts to contact Hallmarc, which developed the Elloura estate, but the company did not respond to requests for comment about the trees.

The federal government listed grey box eucalypts as endangered in 2010 following advice from the threatened species scientific committee.

Arborist John Fordham said former grazing land that had already been cleared should be used for housing developments rather than knocking down established trees.

“There’s no need to be doing that in the rural sphere because there’s ample land around,” he said. “It’s just unnecessary.”

Fordham said the trees played a crucial role in absorbing carbon and providing habitat for native fauna.

Melbourne University senior research associate Greg Moore, who has visited the Nagambie site, estimated at least two-thirds of the trees earmarked for removal were in good shape.

“They’re not all great trees,” he said. “But there are several very good specimens.”

Moore said retaining the trees made economic sense because their aesthetic and environmental value would make the estate attractive to prospective buyers.

“This is a very well established phenomenon.”

Winter-Irving said even grey box gum trees that were leafless and dead provided habitat to insects and wildlife in their bark and hollows. All of those trees, she said, were worth protecting.

“They’re resilient trees that will grow in tough conditions,” Winter-Irving said. “That’s why we love them.”

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