Crushed from on high

By MARA PATTISON-SOWDEN
A WARBURTON mother who warned the Shire hours before a dangerous tree smashed her son’s car is disgusted the council continues to put trees before people.
Marilyn Hand has been requesting the Yarra Ranges Council remove two large gum trees from the nature strip outside her Riverside Drive home for more than 10 years.
The council says the trees were inspected two weeks before the latest incident and found to be healthy, and does not give guarantees that trees won’t fall.
The last time the Mail spoke to Ms Hand, she had paid out more than $1000 in insurance excess for three different claims, but this month her son is being forced to pay out a $2000 excess for his new BMW in a sixth incident.
“He had worked his way up to get his dream car and he was just gutted when he saw it,” she said.
“They have dropped limbs five times, each time damaging my fence and my car.
“The first time you go okay, I’ll pay it – but six times we’ve had to pay the excess on insurance and it’s just unfair.”
Ms Hand said the trees, which she describes as “self-pruning”, were known to indiscriminately drop branches.
“I think it is completely unfair that I pay my rates and register my animals but cannot get the Shire to take responsibility for their trees,” she said.
She had rung the Shire’s risk management team the morning of a big storm at the start of July, and said she would be holding them responsible if anything happened.
“It was a pretty awful night and we lost power…I went out the next morning and the car was just crushed, it was a write-off,” she said.
Ms Hand said the council arborist had declared the trees safe five years ago, and she was waiting for the arborist to visit again, but held little hope for their report.
“Does it have to take a tragedy before they do something,” she asked.
“I can’t cut them down myself, so here we are again.”
Yarra Ranges Council environment and engineering director Mark Varmalis confirmed that the trees on Ms Hand’s property had been inspected several times.
“The latest inspection was carried out two weeks ago, and the trees were found to be healthy and structurally sound,” he said. “Therefore, no works were recommended.”
Mr Varmalis said there was always a risk that trees would drop their branches.
“The council is happy to remove any fallen branches from trees in the road reserve outside Mrs Hand’s property if she wishes,” he said.
“In general, the council has a responsibility to inspect trees if asked, and to complete work that may be required.
“We do not, however, give guarantees that trees won’t fail – a range of weather conditions can cause a tree to fall or drop branches.”