Westbury historic trees chainsawed by neighbour

By Sharon Webb

THE LIVES of six heritage trees at Fitzpatrick’s Inn in Westbury may be drastically shortened after a neighbour took to them with chainsaws.

Resident Robert Grey decided to rid himself of trees on the adjoining boundary of his property and Fitzpatrick’s Inn which were standing in the way of his development project.

He called in HST tree specialists to take advantage of a Heritage Tasmania blunder in accidentally not listing the 150 year-old trees, labelling his actions as being ‘for safety reasons’.

When asked for comment, Meander Valley councillor Frank Nott said he was not happy with Mr Grey’s actions and that it was ‘a bad outcome for Westbury’

It’s a bit of overkill, not a good look – and it won’t make Westbury residents happy.’

Police said they could do nothing and Fitzpatrick’s Inn owner Pam Swain was in tears as the sound of three chainsaws reverberated at the end of her garden for about seven hours.

‘I’m passionate about sharing and protecting the history of this building and its gardens while I’m here,’ she said.

‘I think there’s no retrieval from here. Taking off the limbs from one side of the trees will make them dangerous so they will have to come down. That will be at my cost because they are on my land.’

The trees were the subject of vigorous discussion at the Meander Valley Council August meeting because Mr Grey has applied to subdivide his property at 34 Marriott Street and build three extra residences on the land.

The trees are in the boundary area of the two properties but councillors learned that neither owner knew exactly where the boundary was.

In addition, one of the three proposed residences was only 1.75m away from the boundary area – more than the prescribed 1.5m distance but still bound to affect the roots of the trees.

For that reason councillors rejected the planning application, with the clear hope that Mr Grey would rethink his plan and build only two extra residences on his block.

Instead, Mr Grey decided to axe the branches of the trees overhanging his land because, as councillors had heard from Mrs Swain, Heritage Tasmania had ‘bungled’ the heritage listing of the trees and they were not protected.

The time gap between Mr Grey’s planning application going to council and Heritage Tasmania rectifying its listing gave Mr Grey legal leeway to arrange for the tree lopping.

‘This is nothing to do with the development proposal,’ Mr Grey said as he watched three men with chainsaws do their work up the trees. ‘This is a safety issue. In 2017, my tenant’s carport was destroyed by limbs falling from these trees.’ Mr Grey was clearly uncomfortable about his action. ‘I won’t come out of this well, will I?’ he asked.

More on this story in article “Dispute likely over units adjoining historic Westbury property”