News

Kristin Thiele
Public relations assistant

Avondale College has removed two of the oldest trees but planted 280 new trees to improve the safety and look of its Lake Macquarie campus.

A small crowd of staff members and students watched as the 93-year-old bunyas, located between women's residence Andre Hall and Bethel Hall, came down at 8.30 am yesterday (September 29). "My blood pressure went up but fortunately it all went as planned," says campus supervisor and projects officer Bruce Cantrill.

Avondale estimates the pines--with girths of 3.31 and 3.07 metres and estimated heights of 30 and 24 metres--were the oldest on campus and perhaps on private land in the city of Lake Macquarie. But their health had deteriorated since a vandal drilled holes around the base of both four years ago. The bunyas regularly dropped large branches, which posed a hazard to pedestrians.

Two arborists, one from Lake Macquarie City Council, recommended the removal of or at least the building of a fence around the bunyas. They found white ants and brown rot in the smaller of the two and feared falling branches from the healthy and larger bunya could kill.

Vice-president (finance) Francois Keet described watching the bunyas fall as emotional. "It was sad," he says. "Even the tree loppers were sad."

Two saplings from the bunyas will ensure the pines grow again on the campus. Bruce has already planted one on the bank on the east side of the swimming pool. He will care for the other until he can find a suitable location.

The saplings will not be the only bunya memorials. "We will mill the timber from the healthy tree to make something memorable and useful," says director of advancement Lorin Bradford. A committee that included Francois and Lorin, deans Dr Howard Fisher and Dr Lynden Rogers, visual arts lecturers Andy Collis and Tony Martin and design and technology lecturer Robyn Pearce has identified three possible uses for the timber: a boardroom table, a piece of furniture for a new Bunya Room in the Academic Office and a lectern on wheels. "We aren't exactly sure what we'll do with the timber because we have to wait a year for it to season," says Lorin.

Rose-lee Power, curator of the campus-based Adventist Heritage Centre, will also set up in the library a display of some of the branches, nuts and a slab from one of the trunks. "It's for the students [who were away on mid-semester recess]," she says.

AVENUE OF TREES SPRINGS TO LIFE
The first leaves are shooting on 280 new trees along the entrance to Avondale College's Lake Macquarie campus.

Campus supervisor and projects officer Bruce Cantrill has planted 160 London plane and 120 Manchurian pear trees in two rows on both sides of Central Road. The pear has scented, white flowers in spring and rich, red leaves in autumn. The plane has big leaves and attractive pale, patterned, bark, and is highly tolerant of wind, drought and pollution.

Bruce will also plant half a dozen jacarandas near Avondale College Seventh-day Adventist Church and a couple near men's residence Watson Hall, to replace a smaller white ant-infested pine that also came down on the same day as the bunyas.

The avenue of trees is in keeping with a landscape master plan developed by the college in the early 1990s.

Caption: The smaller of the two 93-year-old bunya pines on Avondale College's Lake Macquarie campus comes down.
Credit: Brenton Stacey

Caption: White ants and brown rot led arborists to recommend the felling of at least one of the bunyas.
Credit: Brenton Stacey

Caption: Bruce Cantrill and Steve Scale plant one of the 160 London plane trees that now grace Central Road on the Avondale Estate.
Credit: Ann Stafford

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