The
camphor trees of Church Street, Bellingen are to be
cut down. ”
The war of the camphor laurels”
has been causing local outrage for years. The large trees are throwing
some shade on cafe visitors and motorists on a side road
reducing the
heat island effect.
In
the collective imagination, the iconic ornamental giants are synonymous
with ‘the beautiful pristine picturesque Bellinger valley’.
Postcard-views show cow pastures framed by thick stands of camphor
trees hugging the waterways.
For others they are an out of
control invasive noxious weed that have reduced local biodiversity of the
entire area. When bush regenerators eradicated camphor trees and planted
endemic species, heritage enthusiasts sprang into action: “ In some cases, bollards were burned out and boundary
chains cut to allow visitors to drive their vehicles onto the fragile
banks, crushing native seedlings and causing erosion damage in the
process.” (
source)
In
the social imaginary the introduced flora belongs to the foundation
myth of the region. After white settlers cleared the biodiversity of the
rainforest valley and replaced it with a pastoralist monoculture, the
need for shade became apparent. The giant trees promised instant shade
in the fertile flood plains for the British antipodeans and their
cattle.
”Ruthless clearance of native vegetation in the late
nineteenth and early twentieth centuries created the desire to plant
exotic trees such as Cinnamomum camphora in urban and rural settings for practical and aesthetic purposes… (The tree ) “was also highly esteemed
for its ability to quickly provide shade for dairy cattle in the
denuded former-rainforest lands of sub-tropical north-eastern New South Wales…” (
B. J. Stubbs, 2012)
The Asian tree was intentionally introduced in 1822 as an ornamental tree for use in gardens and public parks. Additionally
colonial Acclimatization Societies
founded after 1860 aimed to ‘acclimatise’ the European settlers by
introducing foreign flora and fauna. Botanic gardens aided in the
human-mediated introduction and spread of the species.
Settlers longed for ornamentals “throughout the Australian colonies to enrich the Australian flora” (
source).
The
19th Century ‘panacea’ became entirely out of control after the demise
of the dairy industry. “It was generally recognised by the late 1990s
that camphor laurel was well and truly out of control and had become a
major environmental problem in parts of eastern Australia. This was a
consequence of several decades of landuse change accompanying the
decline of dairy farming, and the associated lessening of weed
control on the former dairying lands… It has spread uncontrollably
across that region, competing successfully with native regrowth,
and forming veritable forests on abandoned pasture. “ (
B. J. Stubbs, 2012)
The
neglected and degraded pastures were then bought up and planted with
bamboo and other exotics, while the other invasive weed problem
remained. Today the mainstream
public and private ’solution’ to the
river-hugging non-native species is
pesticide. In the war on weeds all unwanted growth is doused with a
glyphosate-based weed killer, a '
probable human carcinogen'. The new ‘panacea’ to get rid of the last/past folly.
"Inter-continental
and inter-taxonomic variation can be largely attributed to the diaspora
of European settlers in the nineteenth century and to the acceleration
in trade in the twentieth century. " The European diaspora creates an "unprecedented intensity of human-mediated species exchange (which) leads to the homogenization of floras and faunas, re-defines
the classical boundaries of biogeography and has far-reaching
implications for native biota, ecosystem functioning, human health and
economy...The pathways by which alien species are introduced into
new areas are also changing rapidly, in particular through increased
global trade, tourism, agriculture, horticulture, and the construction
and formation (for example, through climate change) of new
transportation corridors, such as the opening of the Arctic Ocean
shipping routes.” (
Source)
Cacti
are the contemporary 'must have' 'must spread' alien species wave unleashed on the area.
Deregulation of biosecurity and the hunger for
horticultural exotics prepare for the extinction of endemic
biodiversity. “…There is an urgent need to implement more effective
prevention policies at all scales, enforcing more stringent national and
regional legislations, and developing more powerful international
agreements.” (
Source)
Back to the iconic heritage trees in Church St and the false dilemma in the collective imagination.
The
street is the only shaded cafe strip in town where cars should go 10 km/h
but 40 km/h is recommended. A giant car park come turning circle where
motorists sit with their packs of dogs and blow exhaust fumes into each
others' lungs.
The large camphors are caged in planter boxes.
(bollards) The roots lifting the pavers have been lovingly smeared over
with tar. Like many other mature trees (crammed in cement) in Bellingen
they do not look healthy. Their branches are mutilated so not to
interfere with dangling power lines and property.
On the opposite
side of the cafe strip the toilet block is also set among large trees.
Their root network is abused as an overcrowded car park. ‘Access’ to the
amenities means dodging a lot of SUVs.
Chopping the giant weeds
would liberate Church St. for more fossil fuel vehicles. More neatly
paved
impervious spaces for cars. A car-centric tabula rasa. In a town
where nothing goes without fossil fuel mobility this is the most likely
outcome. After the
$836,175 chop
all motorists, shade hugging or biodiversity loving will be able to
park there at ease. Should anything crack though the cement - a good
spray will help.
Walkable, car-free and livable
environments are as yet unthinkable in this cultural artifact.
People-centred public lounge rooms with street furniture, designed to ‘
human scale’ with endemic tree shade coverage optimised and impervious surfaces eliminated to stem the uncanny anthropogenic
heatwaves are in the realm of dreaming.
Sources and inspirations:
Brett J. Stubbs,
Saviour to Scourge: a history of the introduction and spread of the camphor tree (Cinnamomum camphora) in eastern Australia , 2012 (
pdf) (
flipbook)
"No saturation in the accumulation of alien species worldwide" Nature Communications 8, Article number: 14435 (2017) doi:10.1038/ncomms14435
http://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms14435
Heritage trees are on the chopping block,
The Bellingen Shire Courier-Sun, 13.02.2017
Bellingen Town Centre Beautification,
create.bellingen.nsw.gov.au
Henri Lefebvre's The Production of Space, Donald Nicholson-Smith trans., Oxford: Basil Blackwell. Originally published 1974. 1991, (
pdf)
John Urry, Consuming Places (1995), (
pdf)
Global movements and funding cuts a threat to biosecurity in Australia, abc 02.2017
Review of Australia's Intergovernmental Agreement on Biosecurity, IGAB, 12.2016 (
pdf)
The Cars and Trucks That Ate Bellingen
Updates:
"Suitable replacement trees" will morphe into
more car parking: “Affiliated works included
formalising car parking and planting of replacement trees which occurred by way of community input via a working party."
Bellingen Courier, 13.03.2017
