‘Timber’ for old trees

SOME of Berwick’s oldest weeds have been chopped down, due to safety concerns.
The 10 pine trees (Pinus radiata) now face the chipper to be sold as tanbark.
With trunks two metres wide, the pine trees located near Clover Cottage pushed arborist, David Leek’s excavator to its limits.
“They were 120 to 130 feet high, but they were dead at the top,” the owner of Cardinia District Trees said.
According to Mr Leek, the pines would rival Berwick’s oldest and most treasured trees.
“They were probably close to 130 years old,” he said.
“The pines had come to the end of their life span, they were dangerous and one came down in the recent stormy weather.”
It took Mr Leek and his team two days to complete the job.
Jane Rivett-Carnac from the Narre Warren Family History Group, said the trees planted by GW Robertson in 1887- which run along Berwick’s Avenue of Honour – are among the oldest protected trees in Berwick.
Mr Leek said because pine trees were introduced into Australia and were not native, they did not receive the same special treatment as other varieties.
“Council refer to them as weeds,” he said.
Trevor Griffin from the Casey Council said because pine trees could pose environmental problems in sensitive areas, such as waterways and nature reserves they were regarded as a “high threat weed species” in such locations.
“In partnership with the State Government and Melbourne Water, council has implemented an Urban Fringe Weed Management Initiative to remove pine trees from council nature reserves and waterways in Harkaway and Berwick,” Mr Griffin said.
Mr Leek said in his 15 years as an arborist, these pines were the “biggest and oldest” he’d ever chopped down.