{"id":92159,"date":"2026-09-09T20:29:17","date_gmt":"2026-09-09T20:29:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/92159\/"},"modified":"2026-09-09T20:29:17","modified_gmt":"2026-09-09T20:29:17","slug":"claremont-axes-100-year-old-gum-tree-despite-tough-new-retention-policy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/92159\/","title":{"rendered":"Claremont axes 100-year-old gum tree despite tough new retention policy"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Town of Claremont has approved the removal of a 100-year-old heritage-listed tree protected by the National Trust at the same meeting where it committed to a tree retention policy.<\/p>\n

The lemon-scented gum, thought to be planted in 1925, is in the front yard of a Riley Road private property and its health has been declining since at least 2019.<\/p>\n

It was added to the National Trust of Australia WA\u2019s classified list in 1991 and the Town of Claremont\u2019s heritage list in 1995.<\/p>\n

The council voted at its August meeting to take the gum off its heritage list after removal of the trust\u2019s restrictive covenant over the tree, which is now bare of leaves.<\/p>\n

A report by town staff said the property owners sought advice about the tree\u2019s removal because of its declining health in March 2025, and after the subsequent sale of the $8.1m home the new owners formally applied for withdrawal of the covenant and from the heritage list.<\/p>\n

\"TheCamera IconThe lemon-scented gum tree pictured in 2020. Credit: Supplied<\/p>\n

The owners\u2019 request said arborist assessments commissioned by the trust found the tree initially had a 15 per cent chance of recovery in April 2025 but this dropped to 5 per cent by December, and it was unlikely to warrant retention.<\/p>\n

In February, they said the assessor\u2019s testing found chloride toxicity was a possible contributor to the tree\u2019s ill health and proposed management and monitoring, which the owners said did not result in \u201cmeaningful or sustained recovery\u201d.<\/p>\n

They said another arborist report in July commissioned by the trust supported the tree\u2019s removal.<\/p>\n

Town staff agreed the gum was in \u201cirreversible decline\u201d, no longer satisfied reasons for its heritage listing, and should be cut down before it risked public safety and property.<\/p>\n

\"TheCamera IconThe tree pictured in July 2026. Credit: Supplied<\/p>\n

Cr Kate Main suggested the previous installation of the home\u2019s pool could have caused the \u201csad\u201d outcome.<\/p>\n

\u201cProbably digging the pool and disturbing these roots a while ago and perhaps draining excess water has added chlorine to the soil in the past, and it probably hasn\u2019t helped the tree, unbeknownst probably to the owners at the time,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Cr Jill Goetze believed removal was the \u201cright thing to do\u201d because it now posed a safety risk.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is very sad, especially as we\u2019ve just passed our tree retention policy,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s such a shame that such a beautiful heritage tree has been unable to survive in this urban environment.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the same meeting, the council adopted a tree retention on private land policy in response to a \u201cmarked decline in tree canopy\u201d in recent years.<\/p>\n

It requires that regulated trees \u2014 those 8m and higher with a 6m average canopy diameter and\/or 1.5m trunk circumference \u2014 should be retained in perpetuity and protected, unless exempt or approval is given for its removal.<\/p>\n

The policy also requires development, subdivision and planning applications to include detailed information about any affected regulated trees.<\/p>\n

More than 150 submissions were received during public consultation last year, with most in favour of the policy, but concerns were raised about it potentially restricting redevelopment and increasing costs borne by landowners.<\/p>\n

A town report said \u201ctrees and vegetation are vital community assets in urban environments, supporting liveability, contributing to local amenity, enhancing neighbourhood character, and providing environmental benefits such as shade, biodiversity habitat, and improved air quality\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Town of Claremont has approved the removal of a 100-year-old heritage-listed tree protected by the National Trust…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":92160,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[917,335,464,2481],"class_list":["post-92159","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-perth","tag-central","tag-perth","tag-wa-news","tag-western-suburbs"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92159","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=92159"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92159\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/92160"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=92159"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=92159"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=92159"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}