Palm trees in crisis
Call to battle as disease and pests plague Sovereign Islands icons
SOVEREIGN Islands residents have a right to feel palmed off.
They should be celebrating one of Australia’s great streetscaping stories after 350 Canary Island date palms, imported from Adelaide, start to reach maturity.
Instead, many of the waterfront mansion homeowners at the luxury estate are picking up dead fronds from their driveways, unaware the island is in danger of losing its signature trees.
Worse still, the trees are not just suffering from a spreading fungus and infestation by borers and weevils but their nests of dead fronds are also home to the odd rat.
Advice from tree consultants is “now it is time to stand up and be counted”, otherwise they will be knocking down trees and paying for new date palms to be flown to the estate.
Resident Ric Rizzi, who owns the island’s largest mansion in Knightsbridge Pde East, is willing to put in $10,000 to start a trust fund.
Mr Rizzi discovered the extent of the island’s tree disease after calling in consultants to clean four of his trees and two of his neighbours’.
It is understood the Gold Coast City Council has attempted to treat many trees but with limited success.
Nine were replaced by the council in 2013 at a cost of $125,000 and six have since died.
“I think the Gold Coast