UNDERSTANDING HUMAN-TREE RELATIONSHIPS:

A Case Study of CBD and South East Light Rail Project

Amy Mei-Lyn Ow

Submitted to the School of the Humanities and Languages,

University of New South Wales,

in partial fulfilment of the requirements of Honours in Environmental Humanities

November 2016

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Acknowledgements iv

Abstract viii

Prologue ix

Note to the reader x

Abbreviations list xi

CHAPTER 1: Introduction

Funerals and e-mails 1

The Research Question 3

Thesis Aim 3

Defining Perception, Sentiment & Values 5

Methodology 6

Background Information 8

Literature Review 12

Chapter Outline 16

CHAPTER 2: Environmental History: A Tree Has a Past and a Reason

Valuing Antiquity: The Historical Value of Tree Planting 17

Identity

Blossom, Legacy and Memory on Randwick Road 18

Seeing Sacrifice and Humanity in the Trees on Anzac Parade 21

Alison Road – A vision of Beautification, Bequeathing and Botany 22

Conflict

Planting, Uprooting, Deciding the Town: Human-Tree Conflict since the 1900s 24

CHAPTER 3: Understanding Human-Tree Relationships

I. LOVE

High Cross Park: 31 August 2016 29

The Significant Tree 31

On Largeness and Tallness and Quietness 34

Street Trees that Adorn the Road: Love Abounds from Your Umbrageous Offerings 37

II. SADNESS

Melancholic Mind: The Complexity in the Human-Tree Affinity 39

Elegiac Thought, Slow-Growing Tree, Requiem about Emptiness. 21st Century’s

Vogue in Sleek, Red Carriages 42

III. HOME

Losing the Familiar, Not Wanting Change: The Great, Green Curtain of Randwick 44

Green Ethereal Salvation in Figment and Matter 46

CHAPTER 4: Activism, Protest and Education: Tree Witnesses and Warriors

Moore Park West – Mega May Day Tree Rally 49

Atonement of the Tree 50

Love in Victory, Orange and Online Sentiment 51

Like Summer Tempests Their Tears Came 56

Home after the Battle: All the Voices About Shaping the Land 58

CHAPTER 5: Conclusion 63

Bibliography 65

ABSTRACT

Human-tree relationships in 21st century urban Randwick reveal the intricacy of

identity and dissent that characterises this landscape and its actors. It is crucial to understand

how the human-tree relationship manifests intangibly and in transcendence of the observable,

physiological interactions between human and tree. In this thesis, I explore the role of

perception, sentiment, and values in emanating the human-tree relationship – focussing on the

site of Anzac Parade and Alison Road where trees are being removed for a new light rail path.

The significance of the human-tree relationship will be scrutinised in the context of the CBD

and South East Light Rail project – a transport implementation in construction from Sydney

city to the eastern suburbs (Randwick and Kingsford). Urban tree conflict arises due to

differing approaches to engagement with arboreal character in the Australian urban

environment. This thesis first reviews the historical context of the removed trees which were

planted since the 1860s. Then, human attachments to trees – or “socio-nature enchantment” –

is investigated through the themes of Love, Sadness and Home. Finally, this thesis examines

the tree as a stakeholder in the conundrum of urban tree conflict that has inspired local

activist, protest and education movements in reaction to Government planning procedure and

management of urban space. These efforts have utilised sentiments of love, sadness and home

to empower and raise community awareness about the importance of retaining valuable urban

trees. In particular, grassroots organisations such as Keeping Randwick’s Trees and Saving

Sydneys Trees have effected their presence through social media campaigns, rallies, events

and vigils. Literature analysis, eight participant interviews and site observation are utilised in

this thesis to explore the dynamic of human-tree relationship and how the Tree is an agent of

socio-nature enchantment. The key is to acknowledge that there exist differences in

stakeholder attitudes towards being with urban trees and to understand how love, sadness and

home works in reconciling urban tree conflict.

CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

“Trees do not talk. But when they are gone, one will realize

their voice. This is the silence of the tree”.1

Melvin Jabar

Funerals and e-mails

On 16th January 2016, a histrionic funeral was held in Centennial Park for trees

removed on Sydney’s Anzac Parade and Alison Road – trees which would give place to a new

light rail. This sombre observance marked the deference of local community members and

protesting citizens to trees that once stood beside and near the park in the suburb of

Randwick.2 This collection of trees began to be removed a month before from the site’s urban

greenspace3. The commemorated trees represented unforgettable symbols of beauty, heritage,

meaning and life.4 A message of saving humanity by protecting trees was the proclamation of

the event and act of the funeral participants.4 Little coverage seemed to be given to this

juncture of tribute to trees in the local landscape. Nevertheless, a recognition of loss and

erasure of significant heritage trees does not come to pass without a lingering sense of

penetrating sadness and consternation.5 As one protester reflected:

“It was like any memorial – it’s the “Lest We Forget” thing”.6

1 C Mauch & K Ritson, ‘Introduction’, in Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring: Encounters and Legacies, C Mauch & K Ritson (eds), RCC Perspectives, Munich, 2012, p. 9.2 N White & N Hansen, ‘Protesters return to Moore Park to ‘mourn’ more figs facing the chop for $2.1b light rail’, Newscorp, January 2016, viewed on 18 July 2016, <http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/newslocal/city-east/protesters-return-to-moore-park-to-mourn-more-figs-facing-the-chop-for-21b-light-rail/news-story/dc78c495347a277956d59fa9b45e9c9f>.3 ‘Fig trees, aged more than 130 years old, along Sydney’s Anzac Parade earmarked for felling in light rail project’, ABC News, 28 January 2016, viewed on 7 September 2016, <http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-01-27/100-yr-old-sydney-trees-to-be-felled-to-commemorate-anzacs/7116608>.4 N English & L Marks, ‘Protesters hold ‘funeral’ for heritage trees felled to make way for Sydney’s light-rail project’, ABC News, January 2016, viewed on 18 July 2016, <http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-01-16/protesters-hold-funeral-for-heritage-trees-felled-in-sydney/7093076>. 55 ‘NSW: Outrage over felling heritage Sydney trees’, AAP General News Wire, 28 December 2015, Proquest, viewed on 19 July 2016, <http://search.proquest.com.wwwproxy0.library.unsw.edu.au/docview/1751950231?accountid=12763&rfr_id=info%3Axri%2Fsid%3Aprimo>.6 Interview with Tree educator, 22 August 2016.

Aside from the funeral procession, people are relating to the same trees through the

digital interface. E-mails to Randwick’s trees collect on the website of a grassroots

community campaign. Most messages contain an expression of disquiet about impending

alteration to the local natural environment; descriptions of angst and disconcerting about

specific trees identified for removal from their locations on Anzac Parade and Alison Road –

because of an intended light rail. Other letters effuse individual encouragements of jubilance,

hope and appreciation for sylvan life within this site – optimistic notes celebrating

relationships, adoration and love. As campaign member stated:

“You just never know which tree it is, which tree that they’ve built that

relationship with somehow…Everyone would have their own special

tree”.7

If death and removal causes great suffering and emotional reverberation, then how

does an understanding of human-tree relationships cast clarity and solace upon this

disposition? Illuminated in the context of local urban development where utility encounters

nature, this situation of destruction and morbidity reflects an intricate, multi-faceted

relationship between the human and the tree.8 Urban tree conflict, therefore, as manifesting in

the contemporary, local Randwick environment is a palpably complex and inextricable

interaction based on perception, sentiment, and value. Should memorialisation of and

correspondence with trees occur because humans are concerned and impelled by societal fate

and local environmental welfare, then this suggests an association between the individual and

nature that observes a deep, inseparable reverence and dependence.9 Currently, these

dedicatory and ritualistic activities in response to demise of particular urban trees occur amid

Sydney’s increasingly urbanising and populated city centre and surrounding suburbs.10

Bureaucratic intent to plan for the future and enable a people moving across the city and

adjoining locales, via initiation of a novel transport scheme, represents a utilitarian motivation

which has clashed with prerogatives of valuing nature. Now, in Randwick, trees are a memory

and the light rail is a dream for the imminent as we talk in past tense of the trees that were

there, while we talk in future tense of a light rail to be, on Anzac Parade and Alison Road.

7 Interview with Tree campaigner, 29 July 2016.8 J. Vining, M. Merrick & E. Price, ‘The distinction between humans and nature: human perceptions of connectedness to nature and elements of the natural and unnatural’, Human Ecology Review, vol. 15, no. 1, 2008, p. 9. 9 P Margry & C Sánchez-Carretero, ‘Introduction - Rethinking memorialization: the concept of grassroots memorials’, in Grassroots Memorials: The Politics of Memorializing Traumatic Death, P Margry & C Sánchez-Carretero (eds), Berghahn Books, United States, 2011, p. ix.10 C. Forster, ‘The challenge of change: Australian cities and urban planning in the new millennium’, Geographical Research, vol. 44, no. 2, June 2006, p. 173.

The Research Question

Environmental Humanities inquiry into 21st century urban tree conflict affirms the

importance of understanding how social entanglements with trees can inform local urban

development milieus. This important socio-environment orientation demands recognition of

the role of intangible anthropogenic relationship with arboreal-life, so as to escape traditional,

mechanistic ways of thinking about and seeing nature. The pace of post-industrialisation in

Sydney’s CBD and neighbouring eastern suburbs reflects a nexus of values, ideas and

priorities emanating from diverse stakeholder interests with regard to planning and managing

of this place and greenspace. This metropolis functions as a progressive and dynamic

economic, infrastructural and social system, assisted with a public transport network that

enables this functionality.11 Street trees manifest an intrinsic part of the local Sydney

metropolitan environment and are an actor in this urbanscape as much as society, economy

and transport are.12 A “sustainable” future local urban metropolis involves consideration and

practising of the trifold economic, societal and physical environment aspects of the city as an

unsegregated domain.13 Therefore, understanding how the human-tree relationship in the

urban milieu is socially constructed offers a way to destabilise existing mentality that

“human”, “nature” and “economy” are removed from each other.

In light of the preceding discussion about importance of investigating the meaning and

significance of socio-environment relationship in an urbanising local context, this thesis

proposes the following question:

What role does human perception, sentiment, and values possess in emanating

human-tree relationships in the 21st century, thus conveying the Tree as an

agent of socio-nature enchantment?

~

11 M Lennon, ‘The revival of metropolitan planning’, in The Australian Metropolis: A Planning History, S Hamnett & R Freestone (eds), Allen & Unwin, Australia, 2000, p.154; P Spearritt, Sydney’s Century: A History, University of New South Wales Press, Sydney, 2000, p. 131.12 J. Frawley, ‘Campaigning for street trees, Sydney Botanic Gardens, 1890s-1920s’, Environment and History, vol. 15, no. 3, 2009, p. 304; R. Mattocks, ‘Street trees: their selection, planting and after-care’, The Town Planning Review, vol. 10, no. 4, Feb 1924, p. 253. 13 N. Klocker, S. Toole, A. Tindale & S. Kerr, ‘Ethnically diverse transport behaviours: an Australian perspective’, Geographical Research, vol. 53, no. 4, 2015, p. 393; G Connolly, ‘Urban Landscapes in Sydney’, in Case Studies in Australasian Geography, R Coggins (ed), Longman Australia, Victoria, 1971, p. 18.

CHAPTER 2

ENVIRONMENTAL HISTORY: A Tree Has a Past and a Reason

“Trees are the best monuments that a man can erect to his own memory”.14

Lord Orrery, 1749

Valuing Antiquity: The Historical Value of Tree Planting

The meanings people ascribe to trees are linked to the history of the trees’ emanation,

existence and agency in the environment. Therefore, an environmental history of urban trees

is an important aspect of comprehending local urban tree conflict through interpretation of

past evidence of human-tree encounters. Discerning the environmental historical premise

shaping human-tree relationships reveals much about the role of perception, sentiment, and

values in drawing the person and the tree into an inextricable, non-corporeal interaction.

Bergthaller et al. claim: “The humanities insist that we need to understand not only what and

where we are, and how we got here, but also that humans have never been without answers to

these questions – so that in order to answer them for the present, we must attend to how they

were answered in the past”.15 For this reason, it is important to etch the history of the Anzac-

Alison trees. Primary historical records and interview insight reflect a perception and

sentiment of profound human attachment to the historical value of the Anzac-Alison trees in

Randwick. This affinity encompasses significant themes linking to the history of the area –

such as recognition of World War I legacy, preserving tradition of bequeathed land, and

sustaining inter-generational equity.16 The environmental history of the Anzac-Alison trees

can be described through two ideas: “identity” and “ongoing conflict”.

Identity and conflict establish a specific historical context to urban tree dispute

occurring since the 1800s in Randwick. These ideas point at a relationship between human

and tree stakeholder that transcends seeing “the environment” as something “exclusively material”. 17

14 A Belcon ‘The memory of trees: A history of the relationship between Mount Holyoke College and her Trees’, in Mount Holyoke Historical Atlas, 2003, viewed on 7 July 2016, <https://www.mtholyoke.edu/courses/rschwart/hatlas/trees/index.htm>.15 Bergthaller et al., op. cit., p. 265.16 Interview with Federal Member of Parliament, op. cit. 17 Bergthaller et. al, op. cit., p. 267.

According to Worster, environmental history involves three criteria: comprehension of “nature itself”,

appreciation of the “socio-economic realm” that interrelates with nature, a nd consideration of the

“values, laws and myths” that imbue these interfaces.18 Worster indicates these three parameters are

not detached from each other, but rather enable a unified “single dynamic inquiry” into the dynamics

of socio-environment relations.5 Thus, tracing the historical testimony of the trees on Anzac Parade

and Alison Road capitulated for the CSELR – through conceptualisation of identity and conflict –

enables a fathoming of how perception, sentiment, and values concomitantly shape socio-nature

enchantment.

Identity

Blossom, Legacy and Memory on Randwick Road

Historical records since the 1860s convey the significance of Anzac Parade, previously known

as Randwick Road prior to 1917, in terms of mayoral vision and bestowing of trees.19 This introduction

of arboreal life to the boulevard is recounted by newspaper reports written through the 1800s and

1900s. An article published by Sydney Mail on 12th September 1868 titled “Opening of Moore’s Stairs.

– Planting of Trees at Moore’s Park” chronicles the meeting and action of Sydney city Mayor Charles

Moore, prominent local council members and citizens in inauguration of Moore Park.20 This park was

to be inaugurated by an “extensive planting of trees” by the Mayor, council aldermen and ex-Mayors. 7

At the time, 148 years ago, Moore Park was perceived as a park “in a transition state, passing rapidly

from existence as a dreary waste composed of hills of white sand to a wide plain of valuable land

overspread with grass”.21 Newly planted trees would be “an obvious improvement” and a source of

delight to the people of the area.7 Transforming the landscape of Moore Park was a priority of the

Municipal Council of Sydney in the 1860s.22 It was a strong council and community tradition to plant

trees in opening and celebration of various locations and amenity in and near the city. 7 Majority

sentiment at the inauguration was that new planted trees were more important than the shifting of

existing sand hills needed to rejuvenate the area.7

~

18 D Worster, cited by S Dovers (ed), ‘Australian environmental history: introduction, review and principles’, Australian Environmental History: Essays and Cases, Oxford University Press, Melbourne, 1994, p. 3.19 ‘Opening of Moore’s Stairs. – Planting of Trees at Moore’s Park’, Sydney Mail, 12 September 1868, p. 9; Randwick City Council, ‘Historic street & place names: Street names A-F’, n.d., viewed on 17 August 2016, <http://www.randwick.nsw.gov.au/about-council/history/historic-places/historic-street-and-place-names/street-names-a-f>.20 Sydney Mail, op. cit. 21 Sydney Mail, op. cit. Emphasis added. 22 ‘Municipal Council of Sydney’ was the 1860s reference for Sydney City Council.

CHAPTER 3

UNDERSTANDING HUMAN-TREE RELATIONSHIPS

“The tree which moves some to tears of joy is in the eyes of others only a

green thing that stands in the way. Some see Nature all ridicule and

deformity, and some scarce see Nature at all. But to the eyes of the man of

imagination, Nature is Imagination itself”.23

William Blake, 1799, The Letters

High Cross Park: 31 August 2016

On a very cold winter morning, I was called to High Cross Park.24 The event was to

gather in fellowship, creativity and respect for the trees in Randwick – trees threatened and

touched by light rail proposal. I sat freezing on a bench, then a picnic rug on the ground,

above the earthy soil and grass of the triangular park. There were many tree beings around me

– of motley heights, differing widths, graduating shades of brown and green – all whispering

secretly against a cloudy urban Australian sky. It was cold, but I was warmed by a search to

understand the circumstance, story and fate of the trees on Anzac Parade and Alison Road

moved aside and elsewhere for an ingenious new light rail. I was also warmed by the people I

met there in the park that day – charming people who practice and speak of compassion for

the tree. I was hugged and watched brilliant crayon paintings of trees come to life. I was

informed of personal adoration for the environment, but feeling a powerlessness to help.

There was acquainting, conversation and listening to thought and sentiment about the Anzac-

Alison activity since the first trees were approached with cutting equipment and machinery –

revealings of personal processes gone through in reaction to CSELR-tree encounter: shocked

surprise turned to disbelief, which became a pervasive grief, that then tried to accept. Now, it

is about a revival and renewal of spirit; a determination of the human character to go on. You

learn a lot about the character of human and earth just being in a park with trees. “Spread the

love”, was the final message passed to me as I walked out of the park and into the momentum

of onward-moving life.

23 W Blake, ‘[To] Revd Dr Trusler, Englefield Green, Egham, Surrey’, in The Complete Poetry and Prose of William Blake, D Erdman (ed), University of California Press, Berkeley, 1982, p. 702. 24 Site observation at High Cross Park tree gathering. Event organised by Keeping Randwick’s Trees.

Spread the love.

The human-tree relationship is an intimate, intricate and more-than-physical affair. A

social fixation upon and enchantment with the tree is just as significant as the tangible

symbiosis existing between these two actors. A solicitous deliberation on the way a person

perceives, expresses feeling for, and values the Tree offers a conciliatory and sui generis way

of understanding human-tree relationships. The mind has a beautiful capacity for cogitation,

empathy and evaluation; the cells of brain and tree deciphering each other casts a propinquity

that endears, suffers, and triumphs.25 It is argued here that the human-tree relationship, on

Anzac Parade and Alison Road, can be understood through Love, Sadness and Home – three

themes that conceptualise the role of perception, sentiment, and values in emanating this

relationship in the 21st century. The Anzac-Alison trees in Randwick were agents of socio-

nature enchantment through their embodiment and sustaining of kinship, community

solidarity, fragility and inward fulfilment26. This chapter explores how the Anzac-Alison trees

approached by CSELR enterprise affect perception, sentiment, and values thereby

constructing the intangible, enchanting human-tree relationship.

Figure 5: Construction work for CSELR in Randwick. Source: Photo taken by author, 2016.

25 M Minsky, ‘The Mind and the Brain’, The Society of Mind, Simon & Schuster Paperbacks, New York, 1985, p. 19. 26 By “inward fulfilment” I mean a satisfying of the mental, emotional or “inner” capacities of the human. R Harrison, Forests: The Shadow of Civilization, The University of Chicago Press, London, 1992, p.2.

I. LOVE

The Significant Tree

A love for trees can be detected through expression of thought, articulation about

feeling, and an explanation of the values a person holds important. People talk about an

enamouring for arboreal life – a response to these beings’ beauty, the embracing succour they

provide, their overwhelming calming influence, or a loving energy that fills the heart.27 Love

is a perception, sentiment, and value of indiscriminate embrace and acceptance of tree-life – a

state of compassion influenced by empathy for the tree. Moreover, this self-effacing condition

is a virtue that remembers the former and yearns to ensure socio-nature equity. Love was an

element and identity reflected through literature, interview and site observation. Of the trees

on Anzac Parade and Alison Road, a salient aspect of the human-tree relationship revolving

around “love” is endearment effused for the Significant Tree. The Significant Tree is

classified as a tree possessing historic, botanic, social, or aesthetic value.28 Many of the trees

removed and affected along Anzac Parade and Alison Road were and are Significant Trees.29

In the liminal space between human and tree, socio-nature enchantment occurs through

admiration of greatness, beauty formed by wood and leaf, community unity created, and

captivating propensity to save through refuge.

In September 2005, a brief was prepared by Randwick City Council for preparation of

a Significant Tree Register. It was stated in the brief that:

“Randwick City Council has an important resource in its trees but recent

history has shown that these valuable assets need to be protected from an

increasing number of threats such as unsympathetic property development

and indiscriminate tree felling. There are many individual trees and groups 27 Interview with Tree campaigner, op. cit.; Interview with Greens candidate, op. cit.; Interview with Federal Member of Parliament, op. cit.; Interview with Artist, op. cit.28 Randwick City Council, ‘Significant Tree Register: Protecting significant trees in Randwick’, in Randwick City Council, n.d., viewed on 29 September 2016, <http://www.randwick.nsw.gov.au/environment-and-sustainability/trees/significant-tree-register>. According to Randwick City Council’s Significant Tree Register (2007) – a Significant Tree retains:

(i) historic and/or natural value (i.e. indigenous/cultivated origin)(ii) botanic/scientific value(iii) social, cultural and commemorative value(iv) visual and aesthetic value

29 Randwick City Council, ‘Light rail trees: Trees along the light rail route’, in Randwick City Council, n.d., viewed 29 September 2016, <http://www.randwick.nsw.gov.au/about-council/maps/map-gallery/light-rail-trees>; Interview with Tree campaigner, op. cit.

of trees within the City of Randwick that are considered to be of

significance. It is important that these trees are recognised, documented

and provided appropriate protection to ensure their retention and

longevity”.30

A subjective understanding of the Significant Tree is important. The concept of

significance when denoting arboreal life elicits certain values and attributes of great meaning

held by the tree that may also enhance social wellbeing and identity. Therefore, the

Significant Tree nurtures socio-nature salubriousness and affinity. Local councils and

arboricultural organisations refer to Significant Tree indexes to describe and classify the

historic, botanic, social and aesthetic importance of trees – this is much an adulation about

specific arboreal properties that contribute to idiosyncrasy of place, culture and community in

the urban area.6 Intrinsically, the argument of these indexes suggests a perception and

sentiment of love for the heritage, persona and story of Randwick. Hence, historic, botanic,

social and aesthetic criteria – or values – used to signify the Significant Tree substantially

represent qualitative, socially-constructed priorities. In Randwick, Significant Trees residing,

or that resided, on Anzac Parade and Alison Road relate of the “people, the places and events”

that shaped the suburb since the mid-19th century.31 Safeguarding, remembering and revelling

in history is thus a value people hold about the Significant Tree. Randwick City Council states

that “Significant trees are dynamic, ever-changing and potent symbols within the landscape” –

unique beings to the location that “tell the stories of early plant collectors, botanists,

nurserymen, horticulturists, landscape designers and garden makers”.7 Observing and

documenting the Significant Tree in its Randwick milieu is a social attempt to care for,

protect and conserve a connection that sustains life – a procedure to ascertain love.

Further to the technical interpretation of the Significant Tree, there is a personal

meaning to this tree. To the person, love for the Significant Tree is more profound than

formally descriptive, document-derived definitions of “significance”. This love values the

valour of past sacrifice in the faith, form and memory of the tree. Sentiment involving awe

and admiration is also disclosed by the human when contemplating the presence and essence

of the Significant Tree – a relation that observes the meaningfulness and value of history,

30 Randwick City Council, ‘Register of Significant Trees (Volume 1 of 4): Significant Trees in Public Parks and Reserves’, Landarc Pty Limited, 28 August 2007, p. 11. Appraisal of the Significant Tree tends to be more a local and state government valuing, not a federal focus. For example, the NSW Office of Environment & Heritage doesn’t have a formal definition of “Significant Tree”.31 Randwick City Council, ‘Register of Significant Trees (Volume 1 of 4): Significant Trees in Public Parks and Reserves’, op. cit., p. 21.

identity of particular place, and community-esteem.32 Pollan demonstrates that in the

coevolution of non-human and human actors over tens of thousands of years, the more-than-

human has “mastered…our needs and desires, our emotions and values” into its genes to elicit

the strategy of survival.33 Taylor notes that the human has a primal ache, an “unspoken

hunger”, for a “communion with the land” involving an interchange of “giving and

receiving”.34 This social need to be satiated by a relationship with nature through mutual

affectation suggests that the physiological, functional encounter between human and tree

needs to be transcended – thus, the perception, emotion, and value of love in bringing both

arboreal figure and the human entity intangibly close enough to enable living and proceeding.

Significant trees, with the concern and misperception that surrounds them, have

become central actors in the conflict over the CSELR. At a CSELR Community Forum in

August 2016, upon discussion about the significance of the trees on Anzac Parade and Alison

Road – in terms of historical value – TfNSW affirmed “a lot of trees still remain on Anzac

Parade and Alison Road” and a key part of the CSELR project is “preserving as many trees as

we can”.35 One interview participant responded to this issue by noting that heritage is

irreplaceable and that Significant Trees on Anzac-Alison must be preserved and protected for

the legacy, bequeathing and covenant instilled in the planting of such trees.36 The Significant

Tree, therefore, evokes nuanced meaning, interpretation and reaction from the human

counterpart – a regard based on value. This is explained by Watkins, who states that the same

trees are conceived extremely differently by various groups of people at the same time – “a

love of trees could be a moral test failed by those who disliked them”.37 A consciousness of

socio-nature intricacy and interdependence can be realised in a practising and observing of

love among humanity and arboreal life in Randwick. Love, in its compassionate

incorporeality, is a sentiment that enables co-relation and empathy among human and tree

existence.

~

32 Interviews with all eight candidates, op. cit. 33 M Pollan, The Botany of Desire: A plant’s-eye view of the world, Bloomsbury, Great Britain, 2003, p. xv.34 Taylor, op. cit., p. 40. In this article, Taylor refers to novelist Terry Tempest William’s work about human love affairs with the landscape. 35 TfNSW representative, pers. comm., CSELR Community Forum – Main Common Room, New College UNSW, 11 August 2016. This event was part of site observation methodology. 36 Interview with Federal Member of Parliament, op. cit.37 Watkins, op. cit., p. 1.

CHAPTER 4

ACTIVISM, PROTEST AND EDUCATION: Tree Witnesses and Warriors

“Right to the end we said we would never leave”.38

Roger McDonald

Moore Park West – Mega May Day Tree Rally

A crowd of 300 people attended the Mega Tree Rally on 1st May 2016 - impassioned

community members, Indigenous elders, families with children and interested individuals.

They stood and sat with signs and posters in Moore Park West, listening to a line-up of

speakers: Sydney City council, tree activist, media, Indigenous heritage, journalism and

parliament stakeholders.39 Banners read Save Our ANZAC TREES, Do Not Destroy Our Living

Heritage and Trees & Light Rail Can Co-Exist. Gentle music played from stereo speakers and

people were encouraged to pick up even more posters from desks. It was a peaceful protest on

an overcast day. Attendees gathered in respect and support for rational urban and democratic

planning objectives that do not sacrifice environmental, cultural and heritage values. It was a

protest in address to the Government – a demonstration of human sentiment for precious urban

trees and the rich social identity brought by greenspace in metropolitan areas. On that day, in

Moore Park West, a collective ambience and agreement of love for urban arboreal life drifted

between event speakers and crowd. The tree was the item of concern. Behind the crowd were

several police officers. Further beyond, on the park’s perimeter, was a line of posters from

TfNSW: “Building Tomorrow’s Sydney”, “Connecting Communities”, “A Better Journey to

Work and Play”, “Enjoy A Day Out At The Park”. Protest-goers voiced concern about

destruction of the urban environment and the need to resist change – “A war…it’s a war”

exclaimed one speaker. The peaceful protest revealed a tumultuous conflict unfolding in urban

Randwick. Destruction of trees is an ostensibly poignant issue: love for trees and land becomes

sadness when trees are taken away, because home is meaningful. The Mega Tree Rally was a

show of adamant adoration for the city of Sydney. It was a reflection of unrelenting community

involvement and spirit in determination to protect entrenched values. The rally was organised

by Saving Sydneys Trees.

38 R McDonald, ‘Where the fire has been’, The Tree in Changing Light, Knopf, Australia, 2001, p. 9.39 Mega Tree Rally on 1 May 2016 – site observation. Parliament stakeholders involved Labor and Greens party interests.

~

CHAPTER 5

CONCLUSION

Human-tree relationships are emanated through perception, sentiment, and values

which convey the Tree as an agent of socio-nature enchantment through their intangible and

abstract manner of operation. In the 21st century, transformative transport artifice – exampled in

the CSELR – envisions future and progress in the urban locale. Nevertheless, perceptions,

sentiments, and values exist in Randwick which observe inviolable social bond and affiliation

with tree-life. Thus, encroachment upon Anzac-Alison treespace and affecting of the arboreal

character of this unique site is understandably retorted and decried by interests who perceive,

feel, and value the significance of this urban-tree niche. The tree is a symbolic actor in the

urban environment – eliciting through its presence, purpose and existence – an enchanting

engagement between human and arboreal life. These encounters – be it through musing about,

painting, advocating for, touching, climbing, cutting, affecting, or removing the tree – reflect

the subtlety, sensitivity and agency of human-tree interaction.

Understanding the human-tree relationship involves appreciating how history has

moulded this socio-nature confluence. As Chapter 2: Environmental Humanities described,

planting of arboreal presence in the Randwick urbanscape was a value for reasons of enriching

culture, aesthetic and environmental function in the area. The Anzac-Alison trees were

introduced to this area over two hundred years ago to beautify the landscape and its

community. Currently, the CSELR is an endeavour to contribute to the succeeding

modernisation of urban Sydney. However, as occurred through the past, contentious debates

have risen regarding reconciling utility incentive with the existence of greenspace. Identity and

conflict continues to be reshaped on the Anzac-Alison site through accolade for tree-life and

experimentation with ingenuity. In the context of history, human-tree relationships in

Randwick convey sentiment of proud belonging to urban space, observance of the significance

of World War I ANZAC legacy, and recognition of a prudent bestowing of green-life to the

area. Thus, maintaining the human-tree relationship implicates understanding how the moral

premise surrounding planting of trees in a landscape can be conserved and protected.

As Chapter 3: Understanding Human-Tree Relationships illustrated, the human-tree

relationship in the 21st century can be understood through perceptions of love, sentiment of

sadness, and value of home. The urban arboreal landscape, and interactions with it, has the

capacity to affect the emotion. Love is an indescribable and unquantifiable state of affection

that bonds human with tree. Nonetheless, love for nature and humanity is difficult to attain and

self-realise considering the many competing values, temptations and priorities of 21 st century

predisposition. A profound sentiment of sadness is perceived upon empty space and

deracination left when urban tree-life is dislocated. This suggests that humans are connected to

trees in ways more profound than physiological interchange. Certain perception connects the

presence of the Anzac-Alison trees with the idea of home. In the case of CSELR, urban tree

conflict occurs because stakeholders uphold different values regarding construct of the Anzac-

Alison site as home. For example, the sentiment that each urban tree is significant and must be

left in its place is palpably inconsistent with administrator sentiment that urban trees are

quantifiable and appropriately compensated through offsetting and replanting measures.

As an avatar in the urban environment, the street tree is a symbol and test of humanity’s

ability to relate, resolve and remain resilient. As Chapter 4: Activism, Protest and Education

conveyed, love, sadness and home have been elements utilised in local activist, protest and

education movements to create solidarity for the Anzac-Alison trees. Campaigns to save and

protect the Anzac-Alison trees is a passionate striving to safeguard socio-nature enchantment

through retainment of heritage, culture and identity associated with the site’s arboreal life. In

the case of CSELR, activist demonstration articulates sentiments of oppression, powerlessness

and voicelessness in response and critique of Government planning and management of urban

space in Randwick. This malaise can potentially be overcome through an understanding of how

love, sadness and home contributes to identity, moral character and human connection to the

environment.

The human-tree relationship involves fathoming of socio-nature affinity, reverence for

the consequence of destruction, and affiliation with the place of home. This relationship can be

understood through humanities insight which draws attention to the operation of intangible

dynamics in this socio-nature interaction – the capacity to adore, lament and belong. Looking

after socio-nature enchantment in Randwick implicates appreciation of how perception,

sentiment, and values emanate across human-tree orientation. This thesis has demonstrated that

human-tree relationship in the 21st century is an intricate and emotive interaction that requires a

conveyance of empathy, overarching respect and communication among the actors of this

engagement.