Native marri trees are no longer being planted in parks and street verges in the City of Joondalup for the foreseeable future as officials seek to limit the spread of the polyphagous shot-hole borer in Perth\u2019s northern suburbs.<\/p>\n
Twenty-nine trees at six locations have now been removed in the city due to the positive cases of the borer, up from three cases reported on council-managed land in June 2025.<\/p>\n
The confirmed cases on city-managed land were in Duncraig and Kingsley, with one on private property in Sorrento.<\/p>\n
The decision not to plant marri trees was revealed after an elector\u2019s motion asked the city to plant 100 marri trees across Gascoyne, Chichester, and Timberlane parks to support endangered Carnaby\u2019s and red-tailed black cockatoos in the area.<\/p>\n
A report on the motion, which was supported by the council, did not recommend planting marri trees as the species is a known reproductive host for the polyphagous shot-hole borer, but said the city would assess planting opportunities at the parks for alternative species to support black cockatoos.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe marri is currently listed as a preferred tree species within the city\u2019s street verge guideline, but this species has now been identified as a reproductive host for the highly invasive and damaging polyphagous shot-hole borer,\u201d city staff said in the report.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
\u201cIn its efforts to combat the spread of this borer, the city has suspended the planting of tree species that have been identified as a reproductive host.\u201d<\/p>\n
Marri trees, officially known as corymbia calophylla, are endemic to the southwest of WA.<\/p>\n
Joondalup mayor Daniel Kingston said the decision was based on advice from the Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a temporary precaution to help protect our urban forest, and we\u2019ll review regularly in line with updated advice from DPIRD and as part of the city\u2019s ongoing management strategy,\u201d Mr Kingston said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe city has received grant funding to replace the loss of canopy cover due to the impact of the polyphagous shot-hole borer, with the funding equating to approximately three new trees per every tree removed.\u201d<\/p>\n
61 trees are planned to be planted in Duncraig, in addition to 22 planted previously, as part of the city\u2019s winter tree planting program.<\/p>\n
This year, almost 1,000 trees are planned to be planted by the city across Beldon and Heathridge.<\/p>\n
The request for suitable species to be planted to provide food sources for cockatoos at Gascoyne, Chichester, and Timberlane parks is set to be included in the 2027 winter tree-planting program.<\/p>\n
Since the pest was first detected in WA in 2021, thousands of trees have been lost to the polyphagous shot\u2011hole borer across Perth.<\/p>\n
The sesame seed-sized beetle is deadly to trees, as it bores into them and carries a fungus that can kill them by restricting or blocking the movement of water and nutrients.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Native marri trees are no longer being planted in parks and street verges in the City of Joondalup…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":598729,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[64,63,75,503,44,47,46,128,45],"class_list":["post-598728","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-environment","tag-joondalup","tag-news","tag-north","tag-perth","tag-science","tag-wa-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/598728","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=598728"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/598728\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/598729"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=598728"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=598728"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=598728"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}