“It still brings tears to my eyes,” said Willoughby Mayor Tanya Taylor. “It’s just so unbelievable that someone could do this. It’s large-scale tree vandalism.”
Large Christmas bushes and Sydney red gums,with girths of more than three metres,have been poisoned. Banksia trees have been chainsawed down,leaving huge branches lying on the bush floor. And an old sign warning about vandalism of trees has been pulled out of the ground and thrown down the embankment.
The council has offered a $10,000 reward for any information about the crime at the reserve,which is about the size of 14 tennis courts. The reserve – part of a diverse natural corridor of bushland that stretches from Cammeray Golf Club to Garigal National Park – is home to Sydney red gums 20 metres high,as well as bandicoots,swamp wallabies and lyrebirds.
The Willoughby Environmental Protection Association is concerned that poison in the soil,which is spreading to other large trees via a connected root system,will also endanger local burrowing animals such as brush turkeys.
The council has erected new banners and a mobile truck at the site,aiming to both deter further destruction and block some of the views.
Pleading with residents for information,one sign reads,“3600 square metres of trees and habitat[have been] vandalised.”