By Callum Ludwig
Warburton resident Ivor Wolstencroft is holding an exhibition that reflects on the plight of the contentious Warburton Tree.
Mr Wolstencroft was and still is a big advocate for the preservation of the three, including continuing to champion calls for a conservation report to be carried out by the Royal Botanic Gardens as recently as August this year.
Despite his strong stance, Mr Wolstencroft said he has great admiration for people who had a differing opinion to him on the issue of the Warburton Tree.
“To me, the way that the tree had been assessed was always about risk and I think it had avoided or it hadn’t taken into account its beauty, I just felt like we’d missed something,” he said.
“It was just an order that was perhaps intended to provide security but it really missed a point completely and it seemed symbolic of the whole thing, the toing and froing, it was difficult on both sides, it was certainly difficult for the council and it was difficult for the supporters of the tree,”
“I think the exhibition is going to elicit different reactions from different people but I’ve always thought that it’s something we shouldn’t forget, it’s something that has caused pain.”
Mr Wolstencroft’s exhibition is his own paintings based on photographs of the 20 locks that were used to lock the panels of the perimeter fencing erected around the Warburton Tree when the initial attempt to cut it down took place on 22 March 2023.
Mr Wolstencroft said he went out and took photos of the locks at the time and made it his mission to paint them one day.
“I was part of the group that was against the cutting of the Warbornen tree down to ground level, and as part of that I sometimes attended a shift as part of the 24-hour seven-days-a-week vigil that went on for 71 days,” he said.
“I’m not sure exactly when it was, it wasn’t immediately but I think it was about two-thirds of the way through, I noticed some new gleaming locks and gold chains appearing, and it really surprised me because it only covered about a third of how locks would have been required if you’d locked every panel,”
“Because I’m an artist it somehow appealed to me that it was somewhat symbolic of some of the miscommunication between both sides regarding the future of the tree.”
Mr Wolstencroft’s exhibition will be held in Studio 7 of the Yarra Ranges Enterprise Centre over one weekend; Friday 25 October from 4pm to 8pm, Saturday 26 October from 2pm to 8pm and Sunday 27 October from 4pm to 8pm.
