More than 1,000 trees are scheduled to be chopped down in Adelaide's Parklands if all the South Australian government's projects go ahead as planned.
More parklands trees face the chop under South Australian Premier Peter Malinauskas 's leadership than have been cut down since settlers first cleared the area in the 1840s, critics say.
If the government goes ahead with the redevelopment of the North Adelaide golf course, the premier says it will require the removal of 585 trees. It equates to more than 1,000 trees in total. In an agreement with Golf Australia, it would host an open every year from 2028 to 2034, with three men's and three women's events to be held in alternating years.
It follows uncertainty about the government's $45 million agreement with Greg Norman Golf Course Design to redevelop the course in support of the LIV Golf tournament, which was thrownAPLA communications director Shane Sody said the last time this many trees were removed from the area was in the 1840s, when the parklands were cleared almost entirely by settlers. As LIV Golf tries to plug the funding hole left by Saudi Arabia, Peter Malinauskas says he would welcome the tour back to Adelaide, but only "if it stacks up for us".
Even when the original Formula One Grand Prix circuit was designed for the eastern Parklands under the former John Bannon Labor government in the 1980s, according to the track's architect, Bob Marland, not a single tree was allowed to be removed for the track itself. Speaking on the Oxley Bom MotoGP Podcast during April, Mr Marland said he was not allowed to take one tree out.
"There were trees I would have loved to have taken out, so you literally had to work within those confines. " The proposed MotoGP circuit as it redevelops the previous Grand Prix circuit, with red marks showing where the APLA says trees will need removal. Historian Patricia Sumerling said this was likely because a policy had been put in place about 15 years beforehand to plant indigenous trees rather than exotics.
"Indigenous trees were not a priority until the 1960s … because there were so few birds in the parklands, and singing birds," she said. In fact, push-button metal cabinets had been installed that played the sound of native "bushland birds" to replicate what was missing.
"That really became such a humiliation to the councillors because they said, 'Why are we having to do this? Our children will never listen to birds in the parklands if we continue to plant the wrong sorts,'" Ms Sumerling said. She said trees in the North Adelaide golf course itself grew from extensive tree planting that started in the 1950s.
Up until then, she said, it was mostly exotic trees that had been planted, starting from the 1860s, after the Torrens "kept flooding and falling in", prompting people to plant irises and other flowers along the banks, as well as bulrushes. Ms Sumerling said the parklands at the time "looked dreadful" following extensive clearing — including for firewood — and was a "desolate wasteland" used for quarrying limestone, brick-making, army drills and livestock grazing.
"They went mad with the palm trees because in the rubbish dump were hundreds and hundreds of little palm trees growing, because the fashion at the time was to eat dates, and all the little dates had started growing," Ms Sumerling said. "So the colonial engineer picked them all out and put them around the Parade Ground on North Terrace.
" Adelaideans of the era were also in favour of foreign elk and elm trees, "which drove off all the wildlife from the parklands generally". Ms Sumerling said it was probably true that the number of trees facing the chop under the Labor government was the highest since settlement clearing, but pointed out none of the golf course trees were ancient.
Regardless, she was highly critical of any plan to spend $45 million on redeveloping the golf course, believing there to be more urgent matters that needed addressing, such as theThere has been a growing groundswell of opposition to the destruction of the trees, with protests including about 200 people who gathered at Montefiore Hill in late March. An online petition protesting the removal of trees in and around the North Adelaide golf course in Possum Park/Pirlatwardli had amassed more than 32,300 verified signatures by Friday morning.
Mr Sody from the APLA said government had refused to identify the actual trees destined for the chop.
"As the deputy mayor said one day in council, if they've got such a precise number, they must know exactly which trees are going to go, but the premier has not responded to repeated requests from us," he said. Mr Malinauskas said he had seen online commentary about the trees.
"There is no lack of mistruths and embellishments and exaggerations, pictures of trees that are allegedly being chopped down that just aren't, I think there's a fair bit of that going on," he said. "But that's what happens on social media and I don't think that's what should dictate the judgements that we make for the state.
" The 585 trees have been scheduled for felling this month and the government has pledged to plant three trees for every one removed.
Premier Peter Malinauskas Possum Park Adelaide Parklands Adelaide Park Lands Association Shane Sody Greg Normal Golf Course Design Historian Patricia Sumerling Adelaide Golf Course Adelaide Parklands Tree Clearing
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