Who wouldn’t agree to trees that offer shade in the summer and light in the winter? Well, not the intransigent ACT Heritage Council, which is insisting owners of a north-facing apartment block in Downer plant tall pines and not deciduous trees. Owners JOHN GODWIN and ROBYN SIRR describe the nightmare of getting anyone to listen to them… 

AS owner in an apartment complex in the heritage precinct of the former Council for Scientific and Industrial Research Experimental Station in Downer, we are agitating to replace inappropriate Canary Island pine trees, planted at the behest of the Heritage Council. 

The council, during the development application process, stipulated that if heritage-listed trees had to be removed during construction, then they had to be replaced, like-for-like. 

Two rows of closely planted, evergreen sapling pine trees, in windbreak formation, have been planted in front of a north-facing building in the complex. 

“North-facing” is the first commandment of buying and building in Canberra. Thirty-eight apartments will now be denied the benefits of passive solar access in winter, leading to increased energy consumption and significantly decreased sunlight. 

The council, and planners, have ignored the fact that other heritage-listed trees in this precinct have been removed and not replaced, and that Canary Island pines are deemed by the ACT government to be unsuitable for urban street planting. 

Our Kurrajong members of the Legislative Assembly include Andrew Barr, Minister for Climate Action; Shane Rattenbury, Minister for Water, Energy and Emissions Reduction; and Rebecca Vassarotti, Minister for the Environment and Minister for Heritage. 

All have a responsibility for climate-change leadership. In this case, leadership was left to Minister Vassarotti. She claims she is unable to intervene in Heritage Council decisions, although subsequently, she sacked the former Heritage Council, with one issue being, “The Council lacks a unified direction and understanding of their strategic outlook and processes.” 

Given no right to appeal, we turned to Kurrajong representative, the Leader of the Opposition Elizabeth Lee, who offered to sponsor an e-petition to the Legislative Assembly. 

We collected 580 signatures, territory wide, to a petition seeking two rows of appropriate deciduous trees to replace the windbreak of pine saplings. The petition was tabled, and referred to an Assembly standing committee. We provided a comprehensive brief to the committee and requested an audience. 

The petition was summarily dismissed in favour of Minister Vassarotti’s report, and an anticipated report from the Commissioner for Sustainability and the Environment. That report was not available until six weeks after the committee had made its decision.

The commissioner’s report vindicated our concerns. It includes this observation: “In light of the dual climate and biodiversity crises the world is facing, it is essential that sustainability outcomes are prioritised in the planning system. The exclusion of climate change and sustainability from decisions relating to heritage management in the ACT is a systemic issue which is likely to result in adverse outcomes for the environment and sustainability”. 

The commissioner also noted a lack of evidence to indicate that heritage-listed trees in the precinct had been managed in accordance with the Heritage Act, and noted that the then manager – Urban Treescapes, advised in 2017: “If removal and replacement of the pine trees goes ahead, I’d strongly suggest that an alternative deciduous exotic replacement species is used.” The government is not obliged to respond to the taxpayer-funded commissioner’s report.

With the benefit of the commissioner’s report, we have made further representations to the Chief Minister and the Minister for Heritage, but the lines have dropped out. Given the ACT Climate Change Strategy 2019-2025, and the repeated political emphasis on “climate crisis”, we are critical that the Heritage Council and the government have chosen to ignore climate-change mitigation, the change in land use from rural to urban, and advances in sustainable urban design.

We have a simple solution. There are 400 metres of remaining heritage-listed trees; use the pine saplings to replace those trees that have been removed and not replaced, and to replace those trees that are dying.

Lest readers get the impression that we think responsibility for leadership lies entirely with the government, the owners in this new apartment complex have installed a 68Kw rooftop solar panel array, are proposing to install an EV charging facility, and use a local social enterprise, Capital Scraps, to collect food waste from contributing owners. 

We get the need for individual, and small-group, responsibility. We don’t get the government’s unwillingness to demonstrate leadership, or to support its climate change credentials with tangible action.