by Shane Sody

I was climbing through a fence on Gaol Road in Kate Cocks Park, on Sunday afternoon when an officer in a police car called out to me: "Why are you using your camera over the fence?"

I replied: "I'm documenting what's about to be destroyed."

"The trees?"

"Uh-huh. Somebody's got to do it."

There were no further questions.

These photos that I took on Sunday 12 May 2024, and others taken earlier will be a reminder to future generations of the hundreds of trees destroyed this year in your Park 27, simply because the State Government assigned no value to protecting them.

Hundreds of 160-year-old olive trees, that once had heritage protection, are being removed, one by one, to make way for a new Women's and Children's Hospital and a new eight-storey car park.

This olive grove was established in 1862 by South Australia’s first Electoral Commissioner, and Sheriff, William Boothby.

Recent research has confirmed that in your Adelaide Park Lands, olive trees provide habitat for brushtail possums.

State Parliament cleared the way for this destruction in November 2022, allowing no public consultation, and only three hours debate in the Legislative Council, before the New Women's and Children's Hospital Act 2022 was rammed through.

At the time, the Premier, Peter Malinauskas, falsely claimed that MPs faced a binary choice between a new hospital and protecting your heritage.

It is too late to stop this destruction. The State Government could have chosen a better site for this hospital and car park, but they didn’t.

So we record the losses - the destruction of trees, even while the State Government pretends to deal with the problem of Adelaide's disappearing tree canopy.

Near the corner of Port Road and Gaol Road, this mini-forest of she-oak and olive trees will soon be gone. Each day, if you are passing, keep an eye out, and use your camera if you can, to capture the destruction on video, especially when the chainsaws are in action.

The State Government certainly will not invite TV cameras to witness the tree destruction, but future generations deserve to see what the State Government's contractors did, in 2024, to destroy this part of your Open, Green, Public Adelaide Park Lands.

What else can you do? Take Action.

Shane Sody is the President of the Adelaide Park Lands Association and the editor of the semi-monthly newsletter, "Open Green Public".

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