The 120-year-old Moreton Bay Fig tree said its goodbye two weeks ago, before it was cut down following the decision of the Frankston Council.
Despite lobbying local MPs to look into how the tree could be saved through legislation or a community petition to prevent its removal, the old natural wonder was chopped down by tree loppers on 10 July.
The efforts to save the famous Frankston tree, which Frankston council was praised for saving in 2004, ended fruitlessly, as the tree roots were damaging the nearby townhouse. Through a loophole in fire safety regulations, the owner embarked last year on legal measures to remove the tree.
After options such as buying the properties and turning the site into a park were taken into consideration, the council decided they would not be able to save the tree.
“It’s ironic that the tree was recently promoted as a model for advocacy safeguarding our natural environment when pitched against obtrusive suburban development,” president of the South Eastern Centre for Sustainability, Steven Karakitsos, told Neos Kosmos.
Steven Karakitsos was one of the most vocal fighters to save the 120-year-old. Karakitsos told Neos Kosmos he was disappointed the tree was removed while he was overseas.
“It was done at the time when I was incapable of arriving at a solution which the centre was working on and was in the midst of achieving,” he said.
In his interview to Neos Kosmos in December 2012, Mr Karakitsos said the environmental significance of the tree was totally overlooked during the process.
“The owners tried to resolve the issue and I concur with them that they were hard done by on account of the bureaucracy, which blatantly neglected their rights and those of the tree,” he emphasised.
Frankston Council had been asked to stump up the $750,000 minimum required to buy the two properties whose land includes the historic tree. With the properties’ foundations being eroded by the fig’s ancient roots, the owners of the townhouses, who supported the tree remaining on the site, were keen to close a deal with the council.
“The outcome – a pristine example of local council and state government failing to act decisively and implement the necessary measures that could have seen the tree saved when they had ample opportunity to do so,” Mr Karakitsos said.
The ancient tree was planted before Federation, when Victoria was still a colony of Britain, and had a long life span ahead of it.