by Shane Sody

The State Government has announced improved tree protection laws, even as it continues its relentless destruction of hundreds of historic trees within your Adelaide Park Lands.

On Friday 17 May, Planning Minister Nick Champion revealed the government’s response to the findings of a parliamentary inquiry into Adelaide’s urban tree canopy, which last year recommended “urgent action” to protect Adelaide’s disappearing tree canopy,

That 2023 recommendation was backed up by the State Government’s own “Green Adelaide” agency, which sounded a similar warning in April 2024. Green Adelaide’s data shows that between 2018–2019 and 2022, almost three million square metres of tree canopy was lost throughout metropolitan Adelaide.

Until now South Australia’s tree protection laws have been the weakest in the nation, giving developers many legal excuses to chop down mature established trees.

Planning Minister Nick Champion claims the changes, which come into effect immediately, see South Australia go “from having the weakest tree protection policies in the country to the most comprehensive”. https://www.indaily.com.au/news/2024/05/17/govt-strengthens-urban-tree-protections

These law changes are welcome, and long overdue. However, they do not apply to State Government development, so they do not protect the trees in your Adelaide Park Lands from the State Government’s own tree-lopping contractors.

The most recent spate of tree destruction, in May 2024. See other recent episodes of destruction, below.

*All that was left on Sunday 12 May 2024, of a huge 160-year-old carob tree that stood off Port Road, outside the Road Safety Centre in Bonython Park. Inset: the destroyed tree.*

The Adelaide Park Lands Association has been documenting the recent destruction. Hundreds of your Park Lands trees have been felled, because the State Government has refused to consider brownfield sites for needed new infrastructure.

*Tree protection? Do as we say, not as we do!*

Especially since November 2023, the State Government has been busy destroying tree canopy in your Adelaide Park Lands. Here is their record over the past few months:

Destroyed by the State Gov't in Nov 2023 - Coral gum (Eucalyptus torquata)

Former East-west path, lined with sugar gums (Eucalyptus cladocalyx) destroyed by the State Gov't in Nov 2023

Six of the two dozen sugar gums (Eucalyptus cladocalyx) destroyed by the State Gov't in Nov 2023

Destroyed by the State Gov't in Nov 2023 : Coral gum (Eucalyptus torquata)

Destroyed by the State Gov't in Nov 2023: two former sugar gums (Eucalyptus cladocalyx) AND the former sports field

Destined for destruction: twin Aleppo Pines (Pinus halepensis)

The next site for State Government tree canopy destruction in your Adelaide Park Lands is this mini urban forest (below), in Kate Cocks Park, near the corner of Gaol Road and Port Road.