Mulch ado about nothing
Activist not guilty on Palm Cove stump stoush charges
AN ENVIRONMENTAL activist who was arrested after a council officer complained to police that he had damaged a mulched garden bed has been vindicated by a court.
On June 13, 2020, as he sought to uncover the stump of a recently-felled ancient melaleuca, Geoff Holland was arrested.
Amid a polarising community debate, Cairns Regional Council had, over the preceding days, cut down the iconic tree due to safety concerns.
Mr Holland believed that contrary to the council’s position, the tree, estimated to be between 200 and 400 years old and which had stood there since before colonisation, could have been saved.
Acting on a complaint from a council officer who was present, police arrested Mr Holland.
He was charged with wilful damage and obstructing police.
Mr Holland returned to the site of the tree with other residents five days later and was again arrested and spent 30 hours in the watch house – though charges from that incident were later dropped.
On that occasion, Mr Holland said two arborists were able to inspect the tree stump, who he said “both inspected it, measured it, took photographs, poked it with screwdrivers, and they concluded there was about 15 per cent rot and that rot was historical”.
Their assessment was at odds with the council, who said scans from May 2020 showed the trunk at the base of the tree was 80 per cent decayed wood and which council officers said was consistent with what they observed when the tree was cut down.
Just shy of 19 months after being arrested, Mr Holland was vindicated in court.
On January 28, 2022, Magistrate Jacqui Payne delivered her verdict in a reserved decision, determining Mr Holland – who represented himself – not guilty of wilfully damaging a mulched
garden bed and of obstructing police.
The co-ordinator of the group Community Heritage Action, Register and Monitoring, Mr Holland said he felt relieved.
But he still sees the removal of the tree as a terrible loss.
“It was a habitat for all sorts of animals, and yeah, from … a community and a tourism and an ecological point of view, I think the community has lost something which was very much valued and treasured,” he said.
Mr Holland said he was
wanting an apology from both the police and council “in recognition of their poor behaviour, adding that he was “exploring his options”.
And he said it was time to change the attitude of council toward veteran trees – citing the current fight to save a heritage-listed fig tree, T5, outside the Cairns City Library.
“We need to be more creative, and there needs to be more lateral thinking on ways to preserve veteran trees,” he said.
Cairns Regional Council had monitored the ancient melaleuca in Palm Cove for potential failure for 15 years, deciding in 2020 that the risk was too great and the 26m tall giant had to go.
A council spokesman said it notified police about Mr Holland’s behaviour on June 13, 2020, because he had entered an area which was cordoned off, in the interest of public safety.
Mr Holland disputes the area was cordoned off and the only cordons visible in police footage of the day are those which Mr Holland erected himself.
The council said it pursued its ultimately unsuccessful complaint against him because “the wilful damage involved the digging of a significantly sized hole in the garden bed, which created an unacceptable public safety risk”.
Mr Holland had one word for that line of reasoning.
“Nonsense.”