Nutting out serious issue

Douglas council splashes cash for safer coconut palms

A FAR Northern council will spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to prevent people being harmed by a rare tropical hazard.

Douglas Shire Council has released a coconut action plan for the next 12 months, highlighting 53 palms that need to be removed across the shire that had been deemed “high risk specimens”.

The council will spend a total of $180,000 this financial year on denutting 1386 of the iconic plants, which is 19 less palms compared to the previous year.

Palms regarded as major safety risks are to be removed immediately from several locations in Port Douglas, Wonga Beach, Mossman, and Cow Bay.

Falling coconuts, which can weigh up to 4kg, are considered a hazard of many tropical locations, but deaths from these incidents are extremely uncommon.

Douglas Shire Mayor Julia Leu said many coconut palms throughout the shire were removed as they were deemed high risk, or had been requested to be removed by residents.

“Maintaining coconut palms, denutting and removing high-risk specimens has been a normal part of council operations since the coconut action plan was introduced in 2015,” she said.

“This is to ensure public safety and improve the environment.”

Rodney Woollatt from the Far North Coconut Company said he had never heard of anyone being injured by a falling coconut in his 40 years’ experience in local vegetation management.

“I do agree, though, that it’s important to protect the public from potential safety risks,” he said.

Under the council plan, officers will investigate the possibility of harvesting mature coconuts on land.

Demand for coconut products has increased by more than 500 per cent in the past decade.

“It would be very wise for the council to seek knowledge and advice from the people involved in utilising the coconut, because there’s quite a few of us involved these days,” Mr Woollatt said. council-controlled