From those who went to see the last tree today – thanks to John Sutton and Fee for this.
Newcastle Council today finished its destruction of Laman Street’s once majestic canopy arch, removing the last canopy branch at approximately 11:10am this morning. All the trees have now been reduced to stumps.
A gathering of fig friends stood together to bear witness to this bleak and shameful moment in local history, reciting poems, chanting, and sharing their stories and their grief for the senseless vandalism of this special place.
A kookaburra provided a poignant moment, roosting on one of the last branches, above the machinery, sawdust and logs, surveying the destruction. It found nothing that it could laugh about, and finally flew away.
Vale, the Laman Street figs.
Lest we forget….
And after that sadness is the dish best served cold: a group of us went to Council tonight, mostly wearing those gorgeous Save Our Figs T-shirts and standing with our backs turned to that lacklustre group of Councillors.
There were a couple of highlights: the ‘show’ holiday was debated again and the usual suspects voted against the community. How surprising.
And Cr Buman had proposed a notice of motion calling for a levy to be raised from ?the Lord Mayor, ?the pro-Laman Street councillors for – wait for it – spending almost $2milion to vandalise the street.
He withdrew it. I wonder whether that was because someone reminded him that the money was spent by council officers under delegated authority – in other words, management did it all on their lonesome. Didn’t have to ask the elected council if it was a good idea.
Maybe he put a whole lot of thought into it: asked for legal and ethical advice, considered the effect of the levy on the community, looked for legal precedents, pored over the Local Government Act, and talked to other councillors about it.
But I doubt it.
