Cathedral Drive

Hey folks, this week I thought I’d share an old article that remains as timely today as it was back then. I wrote it in 2009 for my Secret Garden column in the Toowoomba Chronicle, where, to the editor’s credit, he ran it word for word with my opening sentence as the headline – “What Are Trees Worth?”.

While we did manage to save most of the trees framing Cathedral Drive, tree clearing for development remains rampant in the Toowoomba region and it seems like barely a month goes by without another stand of old trees being bulldozed for a new housing estate or a road. It’s your classic death by a thousand cuts and the sooner we wake up to ourselves, the better.

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What are trees worth? A few years ago I made enquiries on behalf of a client about removing a troublesome lillypilly from the footpath overhanging his driveway. Council wrote back stating that the tree was valued at around $15 thousand dollars, and that if removed, this figure would need to be renumerated to account for the loss of council’s asset. Fifteen grand for a common lillypilly that was obviously the wrong plant in the wrong place.

In complete contrast is the plan by the Queensland Department of Main Roads to widen the New England Highway between Hampton and Geham, and in the process, destroy scores of mature trees along a stretch known as Cathedral Drive. One of the icons of the former Crow’s Nest Shire, Cathedral Drive features widely in tourism campaigns for the area and takes its name from the cathedral-like effect created by the blending canopies of towering, centuries old trees.

On misty mornings, the drive is haunting. In the late afternoon, light streams through the canopy like a massive stained glass window. What makes the drive unique and beautiful is itsmature eucalypts. These aren’t ordinary, poorly positioned lillypillies. They’re tall forest trees, supported over hundreds of years by Hampton’s high rainfall and rich volcanic soil. Many are unusual. There are Sydney Blue Gums (Eucalyptus saligna) growing at the northern most extent of their range, New England Blackbutts (Eucalyptus montivaga), an uncommonspecies locally, Grey Gums (Eucalyptus biturbinata) and Stringy Barks (Eucalyptus eugenioides) that shoot bolt straight toward the sky for 30 metres or more.

But what value does Main Roads place on these trees? None, it would appear. A few weeks ago the surveyors went through and marked all those trees within a nine metre strip on either side of the road with a yellow dot. A tree that scores this dot is condemned, destined to be cut down, uprooted and chipped into mulch. Usually, trees slated for removal would have a pink ribbon tied around them, but in an apparent bid to subdue local concern, a less visible yellow dot was used instead. Main Roads denies they were being clandestine, but who are they kidding. Local activists have since attached pink ribbons, which gives a transparent reminderof the true extent of vegetation to be removed.

What the bureaucrats at Main Roads are yet to figure out, and are likely to never figure out is that the real value in old eucalypts like those forming Cathedral Drive is that they offer habitat. Not just to animals, some of which are rare, threatened and absolutely dependant upon mature trees for nesting sites, but habitat for people as well. Trees give us shade and shelter, food and clean air. They provide the timber for our homes and furniture. But they’re more than resources. Trees inspire us with their beauty and they gladden our hearts. You can’t put a price on that, and you’d be a fool to even try.

I’m not anti-development, and I’m pragmatic enough to realise that the road between Hampton and Toowoomba isn’t as safe as it could be. It needs upgrading. But I absolutely loathe development that’s unsympathetic to the environment, and will do my utmost to be a thorn in the side of those who show a blatant disregard for the culture, and values of a local community. I live at Hampton. My family travels on the New England Highway most days of the week, and as such, I have a vested interest in driving my kids along a safe road. But to arbitrarily remove hundred year old trees based on a plan drawn up from the comfort of a desk in downtown Toowoomba is a notion that I, and my kids, find abhorrent.

America’s most revered farmer-poet, Wendell Berry, wrote the following words 40 years ago:“There are no unsacred places; there are only sacred places and desecrated places.” Like the religious buildings that are its namesake, Cathedral Drive is a sacred place to my family, and to lots of other residents in the Hampton area. The trees matter to us. They have inestimable value. What I wish Main Roads would understand is that when nothing is valued everything is destined to be wasted.