Lest we forget: Parks Victoria to clear vulnerable trees for war memorial

A battle has erupted before Anzac Day between those who would reinstate view lines to one of Australia’s most beloved war memorials, and locals desperate to save one of the last fragments of snow gum forest in the region.

Parks Victoria is pushing ahead with plans to bulldoze vulnerable snow gums this week, in an area that also contains endangered alpine ash, to restore views of the Mount Macedon Memorial Cross.

The works, due for completion by Anzac Day, have prompted fury from environmental groups who accuse Parks Victoria of bypassing the local community and Macedon Ranges Shire Council, which had opposed the trees being cleared.

Parks Victoria north-west regional director Chris Mitchell defended the tree removal, saying the monument was one of the most visited war memorials in Australia, and attracted hundreds of thousands of people each year.

“This project will help maintain views that support the memorial’s purpose, while keeping the impact to local plant and wildlife to a minimum,” he said.

Speaking from the mountain on Wednesday morning, Friends of the Earth veteran environmental campaigner Cam Walker said he could see alpine ash trees – listed as endangered this month – interspaced among the snow gums flagged for removal.

Walker said the snow gums to be bulldozed formed part of a rare and irreplaceable remnant distribution of trees and, unlike snow gums in alpine areas, were not suffering from die-back.

Just 21 hectares of snow gums remain in central and western Victoria.

“There’s just this sense that the process has been followed,” Walker said. “The community has said no. The council has said no. People feel bulldozed by the minister deciding to override all that.”

Parks Victoria, which manages the subject area and surrounding area, applied in 2023 to the Macedon Ranges Shire Council to clear mature snow gums around the memorial cross.

While council officers backed the proposal, councillors voted to refuse a permit, instead supporting a motion that described the proposal as counter to the objectives of the council’s planning scheme on biodiversity, environmental protection and protection of water supply catchments.

Parks Victoria appealed the decision to VCAT, but later abandoned that legal challenge. Determining the project was of state significance, the agency resubmitted an application last year to the state government.

Planning Minister Sonya Kilkenny decided the project met the criteria for a state project, and approved the works under a planning scheme clause that allows projects to bypass standard planning and permits and restrictions.

In a community update, Parks Victoria said the minister was confident community consultation requirements had been satisfied.

David Mann, the chair of the Mount Macedon Memorial Cross committee of management, said 0.9 hectares of trees would be removed. He hoped the cross precinct would be reopened by Anzac Day for a dawn service but, if the works were continuing at that time, a service would be held nearby.

Ash Wednesday bushfires tore through the region in 1983, destroying about 80 hectares of snow gums and alpine ash. Since then, the snow gums have regenerated into a healthy montane grassy woodland that has partially obscured views of the memorial cross.

Parks Victoria maintains that the cross’s listing on the Victorian Heritage Register contains a provision requiring views of Melbourne to be maintained from the cross, and views of the cross from Macedon and surrounding areas.

The heritage register, meanwhile, emphasises the cultural, social, symbolic and spiritual qualities of the cross.

Victorian National Parks Association nature campaigner Ben Gill said the snow gums were part of a rare plant community that existed in only a handful of places. He said clearing the trees for a better view was “completely out of step” with nature protection laws and community expectations.

“Local council assessed this proposal and refused it because of serious impacts to nature and strong community opposition,” he said.

“What we’re seeing now is a backdoor process where that decision has effectively been overridden, allowing destruction to proceed.”

Works began this week to bulldoze a track around the perimeter of the area to be cleared, ahead of the trees being cleared as early as Thursday.

Parks Victoria’s Chris Mitchell said the cleared viewing area would be “much smaller than in the past, in line with environmental and community expectations”.

Construction on the first cross on the site began in 1933 and finished in 1935. The cross was financed by local William Cameron, who wanted to pay homage to the Australian servicemen and women killed in the Great War, and provide work to people during the Great Depression.

By 1995, the cross had to be removed for safety reasons, and brothers Bruno and Rino Grollo funded the demolition and the reinforced concrete replacement cross that took the place of the original cross.

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