{"id":596354,"date":"2026-09-10T19:14:34","date_gmt":"2026-09-10T19:14:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/596354\/"},"modified":"2026-09-10T19:14:34","modified_gmt":"2026-09-10T19:14:34","slug":"melville-resident-to-cut-down-giant-pine-before-council-tree-policy-change","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/596354\/","title":{"rendered":"Melville resident to cut down giant pine before council tree policy change"},"content":{"rendered":"

A home owner in Perth\u2019s south plans to cut down a 20-metre tall \u201cbeast\u201d of a tree in order to beat the introduction of a local council policy to protect large trees, despite the dwindling tree canopy across the city.\u00a0<\/p>\n

City of Melville resident Susan said she would fork out $10,000 to remove the Norfolk pine from her backyard while the council worked on a draft policy designed to retain trees on private property.<\/p>\n

Susan, who asked for her surname to be withheld, said she promised the former owners she would keep the tree when she bought the block nearly two decades ago, but has now changed her mind.<\/p>\n

\u201cI understand the argument for, and I understand the argument against, but I cannot have a council take away my rights,\u201d she told 102.5 ABC Perth.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“Why are we building a massive new layer of red tape to police backyards?”\"The<\/p>\n

The 20 metre Norfolk Pine stands tall at the edge of Susan’s backyard.\u00a0 (ABC News: Kenith Png\u00a0)<\/p>\n

Perth’s low tree canopy\u00a0<\/p>\n

Of all the Australian capital cities, Perth has the lowest tree canopy \u2014 shade that can lower temperatures by several degrees Celsius on days of extreme heat.<\/p>\n

The state government has set a target to increase\u00a0Perth\u2019s\u00a0tree canopy cover <\/a>from 16 to 30 per cent by 2040.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

The state government aims to plant one million trees in Perth by 2035.\u00a0 (ABC News: Kenith Png)<\/p>\n

The City of Melville’s draft policy aims to protect medium and large trees where reasonable and practical.<\/p>\n

Approval would need to be obtained to remove or damage a tree taller than 8 metres, with a tree canopy of more than 6 metres in diameter or a trunk circumference of more than 1.5 metres.\u00a0<\/p>\n

‘Robbed opportunity’<\/p>\n

Despite neighbours complaining about the tree’s roots and leaves encroaching on their property over the years, Susan said she previously had no intention of removing the Norfolk pine.<\/p>\n

And although she was not planning to subdivide, she said she wanted to avoid potential complications if development opportunities arose for future owners.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf I moved out, I can tell you that it would pass to someone else, so my child, and I don’t want to feel like I’m robbing her of a development opportunity,\u201d Susan said.<\/p>\n

\"a<\/p>\n

Susan said she had promised the previous home owners she would not cut down the tree.\u00a0 (ABC News: Kenith Png\u00a0)<\/p>\n

The draft policy is based on a model Tree Retention policy developed by the WA Local Government Association, which has so far been adopted by 11 local governments.<\/p>\n

Western Australian Tree Canopy Advocates community engagement lead Ester Cole said it was not a radical policy.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is pretty standard now and the sky hasn’t fallen in,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Fresh doubts over plans to boost Perth\u2019s tree canopy<\/a><\/p>\n

The WA government is facing renewed questions over its plans to boost Perth’s tree cover, with experts saying current funding will not come close to delivering on Labor’s election promises.<\/p>\n

She said the policy did not preclude development, but “gives a pause”.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat the council will do when there’s a subdivision application is they’ll ask, \u2018is there a way we can keep the mature trees we’ve got?\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cNow maybe in Susan’s case that’s not possible, but maybe in another case it is.\u201d<\/p>\n

Infill targets vs canopy<\/p>\n

Local Planning Minister John Carey said Susan\u2019s concerns typified the debate on trees as the state government looks to boost infill <\/a>with an overhaul of residential design codes.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone wants to ensure that we increase our tree canopy but at the same time, when local governments are bringing in local planning policies – which I’m not criticising – but I am saying they are complex and it can affect development … and it can affect someone’s choice about what they’re doing on their property,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s not black and white where the location of the tree can affect a residential development and it’s not always easy while we want it [to be] for people to design around that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"John<\/p>\n

John Carey said local planning policies can be complex and affect development.\u00a0 (ABC News: Courtney Withers\u00a0)<\/p>\n

The proposed changes to the residential design codes, which would allow about 50,000 extra residential properties to be built in Perth, are expected to be released for public comment later this year.<\/p>\n

The City of Melville has been contacted for comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A home owner in Perth\u2019s south plans to cut down a 20-metre tall \u201cbeast\u201d of a tree in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":596355,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[293951,273,293948,111,112118,112117,139,293949,69,48807,7254,113880,147,76377,209230,293952,293950,10419,5013],"class_list":["post-596354","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-cutting-down-trees","tag-environment","tag-melville-council","tag-new-zealand","tag-news-perth","tag-news-wa","tag-newzealand","tag-norfolk-pine","tag-nz","tag-perth-news","tag-policy","tag-red-tape","tag-science","tag-state-government","tag-tree-canopy","tag-tree-policy","tag-tree-regulations","tag-trees","tag-wa-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/596354","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=596354"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/596354\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/596355"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=596354"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=596354"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=596354"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}