Essay by Eric Worrall
Hint – they are blocking the view.
Extreme weather and vandalism impact beachfront Norfolk Island pines
In short:
Norfolk Island pine trees have become a feature of Australia’s coastline but they are at risk from a number of factors.
A Gold Coast researcher says a severe weather-fuelled fungus and urban stresses are infecting pines across the city.
What’s next?
A horticulturist says he is more worried that the trees are being chopped down or poisoned for the sake of residents’ views.
…
One cause of the trees’ ill health is a nasty fungus from the Botryosphaeriaceae family.
Ms Petrova said it thrived in dry environments and spread through Burleigh Heads’ pine population in the 2018-2019 drought.
…
Ms Petrova said more extreme weather due to climate change, including drought, could be increasing fungal growth.
…
He said he was increasingly being called to pines that had been purposely poisoned.
“We’re talking about 60 to 80 trees at a time being poisoned, huge areas of beach fronts all around Sydney Harbour,” Mr Varley said.
…
Read more: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-02-26/extreme-weather-vandalism-impact-norfolk-island-pine-trees/104949926
Norfolk Island Pines, an evolutionary cousin of Hoop Pines, are tropical weather loving trees which grow to enormous heights in poor quality salty beach soil. They are capable of thriving from the cold southern end of Australia all the way into the far North. They are also grown in Hawaii and other warm weather locations.
Local governments love them because their strong root structure stabilises the beach.
Million dollar beachfront property owners not so much – because that beautiful view you fell in love with in many cases has been obscured by tree hugging councils who seem to think taller is better.
They are beautiful trees – tall, lots of shade, and a soft bed of pine needles supplied with every tree, great homes for Australia’s beautiful songbirds, and a place for young people who want a little privacy. The trees are resilient – they don’t mind being topped to keep the height down.
But Australia’s local governments over the past few decades seem to have forgotten that part of the social contract, beachfront trees nowadays tower over many of Australia’s favourite swimming spots.
Even in my area trees have been poisoned.
It is a difficult crime to solve. In many cases it might be difficult to detect – clever tree killers wouldn’t drill holes in the trees, they would use a sprinkle of readily available heavy metal sulphate poison which reacts with salt in the ground to form almost insoluble chloride salts, a chemical which due to insolubility has good residence in salty soil, exhibits high plant toxicity without being a serious poisoning risk for humans in the quantities used, and which would cause the tree to become distressed rather than instantly killing it, leading the tree to apparently die a natural death, losing its foliage and succumbing to fungal infections. An added bonus for the tree murderer, the residual poison in the soil would also kill whatever the local government planted to replace the dead tree.
I wonder if I just solved the mystery? Maybe it isn’t climate change after all.
My huge Norfolk pine withered away and died – an arborealist diagnosed a fungus – but I subsequently discovered a leak from my swimming pool had slowly weakened the tree with chlorine – so the diagnosis was correct but not what really killed it.
Man – I miss that tree.
Ice Melter salt contained in melting snow piles of a cleared parking lot killed most of the pine trees at the building I owned, and there is no use planting new ones for century or so….Cost thousands in stump grinding, and numerous notices from the city that our parking lot no longer had the number of trees promised in our construction permit application some 40 years earlier, not that I needed to pay city taxes for a inspector to tell me….
“nasty fungus from the Botryosphaeriaceae family…… it thrived in dry environments”
LOL, The East coast of NSW hasn’t been “dry” since 2019.
Hmmm … maybe we should send a sample to Wuhan to develop a strain that kills Windmills? 😎
Story tip
https://www.theguardian.com/education/2025/feb/27/sussex-to-launch-uks-first-climate-justice-undergraduate-degreee
“University of Sussex will introduce what it says is the UK’s first undergraduate degree focused on climate justice.
The BA course, called “climate justice, sustainability and development”, will begin in 2026. The university says it will equip students with a blend of expertise in climate politics, activism and environmental human rights
The university says this will be combined with the practical green skills needed to drive change.
Rather than having a 5,000-word essay at the end of the module, we have a podcast that students are working on in groups and think about how they would convey the complexity of the case studies and examples to a wider audience.”
It is often said, justifiably, that university is no longer an environment in which students are encouraged to think, but rather it is a place where they are taught what to think
This takes the indoctrination to a new level. All pretence has gone out of the window.
In any case, this so called “degree” is more like extra curricular activity
I remember when “equip” meant something positive.
They’ve secured full scholarships from the Mickey Mouse Foundation and Donald Duck Trust for disabled women of color from means tested low income families with no prior history of participation in higher education
A podcast is a rehash of “coursework”.
Adults should be telling children what they should be learning. Not the other way round.
It’s a way to appeal to gobsh1tes, the main target market
The ones you could describe as ‘bears of little brain’. (h/t Winnie the Pooh)
In western Michigan a large area along Lake Michigan was denuded to supply lumber to rebuild Chicago after the great fire. Much of the area is still bare because the soil is gone — nothing but sand dunes and sandy beaches left. Great way to attract tourists but a hard place to build.
https://www.michigandnr.com/parksandtrails/Details.aspx?type=SPRK&id=493
I believe it was raging fires that burned the soils down to bare sand. If they had logged based on property forestry- this might not have happened.
“Is Climate Change Killing Australia’s Beachfront Norfolk Island Pines?”
And then the lingo bingo… “weather-fuelled fungus”
Not too long ago we had a fantastic beautiful avenue of old Horse Chestnut trees on Tooting Common…
“Horse chestnut trees which have lined Tooting Common, south London, since the 1870s, could be chopped down as they have been labelled a “public threat”.”
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-england-london-41168970
A threat? No. These trees were only 150 years old, they can do double that quite easily. This was all about arboral maintenenance costs. What did they replace the Horse Chestnut trees with? Lime trees…
[2007]
“London has been losing its mature broad leaf tree stock, due largely to
trends and practices to plant smaller trees which are easier and cheaper to maintain”
A review of London’s street trees – London City Hall
https://www.london.gov.uk › media › 62313 › download
Khan was, of course, missing in action – yet again. Climate change is – in the vernacular – doing my head in.
Regarding tree poisoning there are systemic herbicides that are designed to be applied to bark and absorb into the tree – a class commonly referred to as “basal bark”. In North America the brand name Garlon (Triclopyr active ingredient) is common for forest management, sold either as concentrate or pre-mixed ready to use (RTU). Evidence of use is limited, usually a temporary residual spot on the tree, or depending on the carrier an oily residue, but it would be gone after a couple rains. It is most obvious when dust blows up immediately after application and you can see the dust stuck to the tree more than the product itself. I don’t know AUS trees well enough to know for certain that Norfolk Island pine would be susceptible, but there’s some pretty heavy duty products out there so likely.
One of my favorite house plants.
Invasive species!
Cultural appropriation!
In Perth there have been hundreds of Norfolk Pines die to a dieback and now we have the shot-hole borer bug which is killing all the Morton bay Fig trees. Both are not native species to WA but were planted 50-100 years ago in parks.
So lots have parks have huge holes where huge trees used to be.
https://www.cottesloe.wa.gov.au/council-meetings/ordinary-council-meeting/24-november-2020-ordinary-council-meeting/274/documents/10110-arbor-carbon-final-report-on-norfolk-island-pine-decline-nov-2020.pdf
Maybe troops of tree-huggers could be deployed to hug those afflicted trees back to good health?
King Charlie would be eager to sponsor them I’m sure.
I’m surprised replanting hasn’t been mandated. If the soil was poisoned the owner knows, so knows the soil has to be removed. Or they can continuously replant.
They are often on the public land in front of buildings. Some councils have resorted to installing a couple of shipping containers, left in place until the replacement trees are tall enough.
This seems to work well where the driver is property views and the owner is mindful of property values.
For the tourist or day tripper, it looks like the council have made the place very untidy. Maybe the tourists don’t come back? Who knows?
https://www.news.com.au/national/nsw-act/crime/disgusting-local-council-takes-drastic-action-over-alleged-tree-poisoning/news-story/141ce292631cd6a3ca01a49c472a7169
Sounds more like a murder mystery
Two things here. Number one CO2 doesn’t have a damn thing to do with this issue. Number two who own the trees? Are people getting rid of trees on their own property? If they are killing trees on someone else’s property it is a matter for law enforcement. If they are killing trees on their own property I would have to ask why are they poisoning them? The tree is still there, why not harvest the trees selectively and replant. That way you can use the cut tree, regain the view, enjoy the new tree until it blocks your view and do the whole thing over again. What they are doing now is stupid.
My wife was a property manager, she told me how difficult it was to cut down a tree in the city limits. The city arborist had to declare the tree essentially dead and or a danger to the population. You don’t own the tree just because it’s on your property. Don’t be so silly.
In my town the city owns the boulevard, designated open space and park trees. I own my trees. The lazy city does expect me to care for their tress however.
Different city, different rules.
My City tried to fine me $3,000 for the five trees my neighbor cut off my vacant property. I told them, and the hearing official, that they needed to up it to $4,500 because of the three trees that the City took out when they fell one of their 42″ 100 footers from the adjacent park onto my property (they didn’t know where the park started). “Do you really want that?” … “Yes, you are going to lose anyway, and this way your hypocrisy will be evident to everyone”.
I had/have a client in Portland where the neighbor essentially cleared a downhill lot, for view purposes. The City of Portland went after the innocent vacant property owner; made him waste a whole lot of money on a re-vegetation plan and replanting. They go after the subject property because they can lien it; they have a harder time getting any money out of the real offender. This one cost the ‘poor’ guy 8 or 10 thousand (he wasn’t really poor, so he didn’t think it was worth fighting it or going after the uphill neighbor.)
Combine the control nazi constituents with the lazy/greedy regulators and you get …
poisoned trees.
There’s a very smart and no doubt expensive whale viewing platform at Gerringong on the NSW south coast. It would be fantastic for watching whales migrate, except that the line of trees in front of it now blocks the view. Hmmm.