Tie a yellow ribbon round the old oak tree …

Perhaps concerned citizens of South Hobart might consider tying yellow ribbons to their impressive heritage-listed old oak tree now facing an uncertain future alongside the Southern Outlet.

Such ribbons would be visual endorsement of their worries about this landmark tree, of significance at 100 years plus, Apart from being inspirational in its own leafy appearance, it’s also important to the setting of the entrance to South Hobart, that “village” feeling, with lovely All Saints Anglican Church on the other side of Macquarie Street and Mt Wellington as the striking backdrop.

This mighty oak seems an endangered prospect because of Hobart City Council’s proposed road works it hopes will improve traffic flows through the somewhat bottleneck short link from the Southern Outlet between Davey and Macquarie Streets.

Part of the project would involve moving the lane turning into South Hobart closer to the oak, and as the HCC wants to prune the tree for traffic reasons, the citizens fear this will put the tree at risk. It’s more than just the mere lopping of “a couple of limbs”, a “haircut” that would be “barely noticeable”, as Hobart’s Sunday newspaper has dismissively reported it.

The HCC’s leaflet on the project distributed in the suburb as a community consultation inviting people to comment has put it – there’s a legal requirement to do the pruning to create a six-metre clearance above the road surface. The citizens see the likely extent of such cutting as damaging the oak and eventually causing its death.

As well, there would be removal of some roots, although HCC officers have given an assurance this will be done by careful hand-digging. They believe that, overall, there will be minimal risk of damaging the tree, but they admit its appearance will be changed. The citizens say a second opinion is needed from an independent arboricultural expert.

Having noted overwhelming community opposition to the tree surgery when the road project earlier came before the HCC, the Tasmanian Heritage Council opposed the works. So the HCC appealed the combined objections of Heritage and residents (all up 30 were lodged, Heritage saying it was one of the biggest responses it has seen to an issue) to the Resource Management and Planning Appeal Tribunal, but subsequently sought a three-month delay on a hearing saying it wants to have community consultation before making a final decision on the appeal.

The road changes have been pending several years, with the Federal Government having given $350,000, the balance of $100,000 coming from the HCC. In part, the delay has been settling the amount of compensation to the owner for taking a slice of his land on which the oak tree stands. It’s been a drawn-out process, but the Sunday Tasmanian report overlooked this aspect.

Has the HCC’s latest burst of action been prompted by a worry that if the long-granted Canberra money isn’t used, Treasurer Swan might ask for it back? But the Federal Government has now extended the grant for another 12 months. This was shown on a recent full council meeting agenda, but somehow it missed the attention of both the Mercury and Suntas.

There’s also the point that when this item was before the aldermen, there was a recorded admission from council officers that the road changes would not significantly alleviate the traffic choking at peak times.

The late part of the Suntas report quoted Acting Lord Mayor Helen Burnet as saying aldermen were concerned the $450,000 solution might not work: “It’s a really important public consultation we are going through because it is a landmark tree, and while we want to see improved traffic flow, we need to balance that.”

The problems of increasing traffic volumes on the Southern Outlet, growing with the major residential development in the Kingborough area, and its daily commuters to central Hobart and beyond, have repeatedly been the subject of letters to the Mercury. One hopes the HCC keeps a file of them (and takes note of the complaints). If so, it would be a hefty record.

Short-term measures at the Hobart end of the Southern Outlet will probably be of little help, better than nothing at all being done perhaps – but there appears no long-term solution to something that will only get worse.