IPSWICH Climate Action Group took to the streets on Friday night to protest the Ipswich City Council’s plans to remove two mature paperbark trees from the top of d’Arcy Doyle Place.
Group members took over the entrance to d’Arcy Doyle Place waving placards “Save the trees” and “Trees are precious”.
As reported in last week’s Local Ipswich News, Council has plans for a major overhaul of d’Arcy Doyle Place, a project which is yet to attract the required funding from other levels of government.
Part of the proposed plan is to remove the two Melaleuca trees in front of the old Bank of Australasia building to make way for a covered walkway.
Climate Action Group member Robyn Whale said the group would take up a petition and was seeking meetings with local MPs to save the trees.
Ms Whale said passers-by were not aware of Council’s plan to remove the trees and were horrified that a council would be contemplating taking the axe to two of the few shade trees in central Ipswich.
Council posted the proposed plans on its Shape Your Ipswich website and opened the page for public comment over the 2023-24 Christmas holiday period and was scheduled to conduct a second round of community consultation about the plans from July 17 to August 21 last year.
“The participation on Shape Your Ipswich is a tiny fraction of the community,” Ms Whale said.
“We were handing out leaflets and nobody knew about the plans for the trees until we told them.
“Most people passing by were horrified they were taking those trees out. It didn’t make sense to anybody.”
She said the trees were symbolic of the work of the precinct’s namesake, renowned Ipswich artist d’Arcy Doyle.
“He’d be turning in his grave if he knew they were taking out the only two trees in d’Arcy Doyle Place.”
Ipswich City Council is yet to respond to questions from Local Ipswich News about the planned removals.
