A GIANT 200-year-old gum tree narrowly missed crushing several cars when it fell across a popular part of the Yarra River in Warburton.
Since it fell on Sunday 13 January the massive mountain ash has become a tourist attraction and makeshift bridge. Authorities say they are considering if it should be left in place or removed.
Wild Thyme café owner Alan Seppings said he heard the tree creaking and swaying in the morning before it fell with a huge whooshing sound.
“If it was a few metres longer it would have taken out five or six cars that were parked on Thomas Avenue,” he said.
“I’ve been here 22 years and I haven’t seen any tree as big come down.
“The tourists just loved it, the enormity of it… they were coming in and talking about it all day,” he said.
The cause of the fall is being blamed on water from a burst pipe which undermined the tree’s roots.
That leak was caused by another tree which fell on Christmas Eve and residents said the water has caused several other smaller trees to fall since then.
A formal assessment by an arborist will be needed to determine the exact reason why the tree fell.
The Mail has had emails and phone calls from residents and traders who can’t believe the tree has fallen, and even visitors who all have something to say about what the river means to Warburton as a tourist town.
The responsible authorities are busy working out what to do next – leave the tree for habitat in the river and for people to walk across as a natural bridge, or remove it to allow people to use the river for recreation.
Whatever the decision, those in charge have said it needs to be a compromise between environment and recreation, but they’ve been left a tricky job when the tree is in a high-tourist area.
Meanwhile, parts of Dammans Road and Wellington Avenue continue to be closed for reinforcement works since the beginning of January.
Luckily the riverbank was quiet that Sunday morning between 9.30 and 10am because of the miserable weather, a time when tourists and locals usually start making their way into town via the river walk.
After half an hour of creaking and groaning, the tree fell from the north bank across the river and landed metres from the car park on Thomas Avenue.
Officers from Yarra Ranges Council were on site within the hour, removing some of the smaller branches from across the paths.
One resident said she didn’t believe it would have dropped as soon if the embankments had been addressed earlier.
Jess Baillie from the Upper Yarra River Reserves Committee said the council, the committee and Melbourne Water, which have a memorandum of understanding around caring for the river banks, would be meeting within the week to discuss the next move.
“It’s a high profile spot in town with all the canoers and rafters and swimmers, but fallen trees can also provide habitat,” she said.
“Whatever the decision, the town’s needs and the environmental requirements will need to be kept in mind.”
Yarra Valley Water’s acting general manager of infrastructure services Chris Brace said the company had received notification that a tree had fallen on Wellington Road at about 11am on 24 December, damaging a water main.
“This caused water to run down the steep embankment towards Dammans Road, disturbing the foundations of another tree which also subsequently fell,” he said.
He said a Yarra Valley Water assessor was on site at 11.30am and turned the water down, but a crew were unable to repair the water main until the council had arranged for arborists to remove the tree.
“The fallen tree also caused a bees’ nest to stir, resulting in further delays to the removal of the tree and repair of the water main while an exterminator was organised,” he said.
“The crew were able to gain access to the site at around 5pm and repairs to the water main were completed just before 8pm that night.”
Melbourne Water Acting North East Waterways Manager Steve Hosking said that in the interests of public safety it was removing large sections of the tree that has fallen across the pathways on both sides of the river.
“We are working with the Upper Yarra River Reserves Committee to manage the remainder of the tree to mitigate any impacts to the river,” he said.
Yarra Ranges Council provided a statement that said officers immediately cleared trees from the paths and car park on the Thomas Avenue side.
However it didn’t respond to questions asked about the reinforcement works on the roads.
