Anger over tree vandalism

Published on 14 May 2024

The City of Kingston joins with the community in expressing anger at a spate of recent tree vandalism incidents across our city.

Dozens of new plantings were ripped out and destroyed in Clayton South and Oakleigh South in November, which not only undermines Council’s push to increase Kingston’s tree canopy, but also places a further cost burden onto ratepayers.

As outlined in our Urban Forest Strategy, we are committed to significantly increasing tree canopy cover to 20% by 2025 (currently 12.3%) and our Urban Cooling Strategy highlights the importance of greening in cooling our neighbourhoods. 

In addition to this vandalism, the recent deliberate poisoning of one of the largest Banksia trees in Kingston was extremely frustrating and disappointing.

The nature strip tree on Warrigal Road in Mentone is estimated to be more than 80 years old and was valued at $144,000 in 2022.

The tree died in December and the smaller branches have now been removed to manage safety concerns. The remaining parts of the tree have been retained as habitat for the time being, and tree poisoning signage is now in place to provide education about the protection of our trees.

At the conclusion of this period, the dead tree will be removed, and a new tree planted.

A similar process is also being followed in Parkdale after another mature tree was vandalised. In this incident a saw was used to ringbark the nature strip tree on MacGregor Street.

Investigations into all these matters are ongoing and anyone who witnesses or suspects vandalism of our trees is urged to make a report to Council on 1300 653 356 or email info@kingston.vic.gov.au.