[COM] Victoria Square Upgrade - $24m

[crawf]

The lemon scented trees look like being scrapped, with Plane trees to be used instead.

http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/news/sout ... 6600796468

Good news in my books.

[rhino]

And as I suggested, if you are in doubt re the lemon scented gum, and their suitability for planting in close urban enivironments, contact your local council and ask their opinion, these trees have caused huge issues in the suburbs, but I guess that is just anecdotal evidence...

It is, IMO. All trees drop limbs, even deciduous trees. Some fall over completely. Type in Lemon Scented Gum into Google and look for an article that says they drop limbs. I couldn't find one, but I only looked through the first 10 articles or so. Then I typed in "Lemon scented gums drop limbs" and guess what? I could only find anecdotal stories - one where a resident has written to council stating that they are notorious for dropping limbs!

As for messyness, it's not all year round (I have 10 lemon scented gums outside my house, I have lined my road with them). Plane trees drop all their leaves every autumn, and make a hell of a mess too. And their leaves affect the waterways in a much worse way than eucalyptus leaves. Having said that, I'm a fan of plane trees too.

[Maximus]

And people will also complain about Plane Trees being bad for hayfever and asthma sufferers. IIRC, this was the whinge when they wanted to plant them during the upgrade of North Tce.

I think the only way to appease everybody will be to plant no trees at all. Just pave the entire thing with concrete!

[crawf]

And as I suggested, if you are in doubt re the lemon scented gum, and their suitability for planting in close urban enivironments, contact your local council and ask their opinion, these trees have caused huge issues in the suburbs, but I guess that is just anecdotal evidence...

It is, IMO. All trees drop limbs, even deciduous trees. Some fall over completely. Type in Lemon Scented Gum into Google and look for an article that says they drop limbs. I couldn't find one, but I only looked through the first 10 articles or so. Then I typed in "Lemon scented gums drop limbs" and guess what? I could only find anecdotal stories - one where a resident has written to council stating that they are notorious for dropping limbs!

As for messyness, it's not all year round (I have 10 lemon scented gums outside my house, I have lined my road with them). Plane trees drop all their leaves every autumn, and make a hell of a mess too. And their leaves affect the waterways in a much worse way than eucalyptus leaves. Having said that, I'm a fan of plane trees too.

Not lemon-scented, but this story comes to mind.

[rhino]

Not lemon-scented, but this story comes to mind.

From memory those trees are River Red Gums. So .... your point is ....? Don't plant trees?

[Waewick]

pretty stupid reaction as well

sure Gums lose limbs but it was a freak accident. perhaps we should simply stop people driving cars too.

[crawf]

Not lemon-scented, but this story comes to mind.

From memory those trees are River Red Gums. So .... your point is ....? Don't plant trees?

It's still part of the gum tree family, so my point is they can be a major safety hazard compared to other species. This quote onwiki sums it up.

Although all large trees can drop branches, the weight of eucalyptus wood is high because of its density and high resin content.

I'm not against gum trees and believe they can look great in the right location, but this event space is not one of them.

[[Shuz]]

Victoria Square gum tree plan faces axe
Kat Stokes
The Advertiser March 20, 2013 4:31AM

A PLAN to plant dozens of lemon-scented gums in the redeveloped Victoria Square is likely to be scrapped at the 11th hour in favour of reportedly safer plane trees.

An Adelaide City Council committee voted last night against the original decision to plant 100 gums.

Instead, they will recommend 100 plane trees be planted in the square.

It is set to be rubber-stamped at a council meeting next week and comes after years of planning and designing based around the gums.

Members including councillors Anne Moran, David Plumridge and Sandy Wilkinson passionately argued against the planting of the gums – which they said were notorious for dropping limbs.
In a heated debate, Ms Moran said people could "die" if the 100 lemon-scented gums were put there as proposed.

"I would not be happy planting them (there)," she said.

The original council decision to plant lemon-scented gums was labelled as "deadly, dangerous and stupid" by tree experts.

Arborist Grant Carlin, who owns ABC Trees and has been in the business for 20 years, heavily criticised the decision to plant the gum trees in a public place.

"This is an extremely dangerous decision; I would never do it," he said. "Lemon-scented gum trees are one of the worst (types) because when the weather changes, they can spit branches ... they're very fragile and very brittle.

"I would say (the decision) is stupid ... and foolish."

Mr Carlin said he had seen cars squashed and playgrounds demolished by falling gums.

Serenity now! Thank goodness the ACC have come to their senses. Hopefully they follow suit with Rundle Mall.

[rhino]

It absolutely blows me away the way some people think all eucalypts have the same characteristics.

I read an interesting article yesterday about the right to an opinion. Basically it said that you have a right to your opinion about whether strawberry ice cream tastes better than chocolate ice cream (a personal opinion), but if your opinion in a scientific field is not supported by fact, or indeed goes against established fact, then you do not have a right to the same ammount of consideration as someone who's opinion is based on fact. Some of the recent posts in this thread, and some of the comments by some ACC councillors (the usual suspects) fall into this category, I fear. I notice the article says the councillors argued passionately .... as usual, the squeaky wheel gets the oil, whether it needs it or not.

[crawf]

Arborist Grant Carlin, who owns ABC Trees and has been in the business for 20 years, heavily criticised the decision to plant the gum trees in a public place.

"This is an extremely dangerous decision; I would never do it," he said. "Lemon-scented gum trees are one of the worst (types) because when the weather changes, they can spit branches ... they're very fragile and very brittle.

TBH I am getting a little over talking about trees when there is far more important things happening in Adelaide right now. At the end of day I'm just glad something is finally happening... and this time for real!

[claybro]

BTW, I think Vic Square will look magnificent when complete. I am more than happy with the tree compromise. To have some Eucalypts for year round greenery when the plane trees are bare will be nice. But also so the event lawn can enjoy some winter sunshine under the planes. A good result all round.

[Matt]

Bring it on. Just hope The Traumatiser and AdelaideNow don't insist on picking every bit of it to shreds as it gets developed.

[buildit83]

Bring it on. Just hope The Traumatiser and AdelaideNow don't insist on picking every bit of it to shreds as it gets developed.

unfortunately this will happen without a doubt

[rhino]

BTW, I think Vic Square will look magnificent when complete. I am more than happy with the tree compromise. To have some Eucalypts for year round greenery when the plane trees are bare will be nice. But also so the event lawn can enjoy some winter sunshine under the planes. A good result all round.

What he said. Exactly.

[mackonamy]

What's the big dealio with having gum trees anyway? They aren't a particularly nice looking tree, and I for one think it's unusual to see such a wildly diverse range of trees planted in the one area (I.E. deciduous vs. evergreen). I would much rather see nicer plane trees planted to keep in line with the trees across the road on King William St. They make for some nice autumn foliage and bring in sunlight in winter and significant shade in the warm, sometimes hot Adelaide summers. Plane trees all the way, as they are nicer, convenient and evidently safer.

Also, it seems those redeveloping Rundle Mall knew this all along, as gum trees were never apart of their tree plan. They are planting 70 Chinese Elms along the mall, a deciduous tree, in favour of anything native - due to the overall nicer look and safer nature of the elm trees. One of the people behind the decision said "gum trees belong in the outback, where they cannot cause significant destruction to people, cars or buildings."

P.S. Anyone doubting the damage lemon scented gums cause, and gums in general for that matter, should come to where I live. Constant chaos in shedded limbs and bark all of the place, with wayward branches. Thankfully, after constant protests, a lot of them are now facing removal and some kind of nicer deciduous type will take there place (should be the way for every suburb I feel). I have deciduous in my garden and have never faced a problem with the health of the trees, nor the structure or falling branches. The only problem is falling leaves in the autumn months, which I think looks nice anyway.