Wood rot spells end for old tree

Contractors will remove an historic tree from the front of Halse Lodge next month ending a nine-year effort to maintain the tree for its nesting hollows.

Council approved the old blue gum’s removal after two independent arborists confirmed now-widespread fungal decay posed a safety risk.

“It is a shame to lose a tree of such significant heritage value as this, but Drew Pearson of Halse Lodge has done his best to prolong its life since it first started to deteriorate in 2007,” Council Environment Officer Conor Neville said.

Believed to be well over 100 years old, the tree appears in photographs dating back to 1910.

Mr Pearson said the tree had since appeared in countless international backpackers’ holiday snaps, taken while staying at Halse Lodge.

“It has been a prominent feature at the entrance to Noosa Heads and has provided an enormous number of lorikeets, cockatoos, galahs and microbats with a home,” he said.

“We’re very sad to lose the grand old tree, but with the fungal decay now widespread, we have no other choice but to remove what is left of the tree.”

Spotters will rescue and relocate wildlife before contractors arrive mid-July.

The tree’s memory will live on with some of its hollows and limbs to be salvaged and re-used as wildlife habitat on nearby land and in a nearby tree.

13 July 2016