Mass killing of trees along Sydney harbour prompts council to investigate
There's been a mass killing of trees in an affluent area along the Sydney harbour. It's the latest incident in the city - and allegedly the motive is to improve water views. Sydney councils say those behind these acts of vandalism are too wealthy to be deterred by fines.
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00:00 A pocket of harbourside bushland cleared out.
00:06 Absolutely selfish and it really just comes back to people who do these things usually
00:11 do it for view gain and also which obviously increases the value of their property.
00:17 Almost 300 trees and plants, some endangered, are now gone.
00:23 Lane Cove Council has a person of interest.
00:25 They did a real job didn't they?
00:28 The council is building a case to take to the Land and Environment Court.
00:32 We're appealing to the court system to make sure they impose the maximum penalty.
00:37 This stuff has got to be stopped, this vandalism has to be stopped and the message sent to
00:42 these people doing it is that you can't do this.
00:45 No remnants were left on this public land.
00:48 They need to remediate this, they just can't just say I'll pay a fine and go away.
00:53 A local environment group says threatened species lived there.
00:58 Somebody taking a little chunk out of the bushland is just reducing and reducing habitat.
01:04 The council and locals are perplexed as to how someone could commit such large scale
01:09 destruction with no one hearing it.
01:11 The mayor says those behind it used hand saws in the middle of the night.
01:16 It comes just months after almost 300 trees were chopped down and poisoned at Castle Cove.
01:23 Willoughby Council has made sure the view is still blocked.
01:26 The spate of incidents has left councils arguing the fines are not enough to deter wealthy
01:31 landowners.
01:32 If we have to make sure and we have to address the penalties to make sure this sort of stuff
01:37 isn't repeated then we'll have a good look at that.
01:40 Proving every tree matters.
01:42 [BLANK_AUDIO]