Urgent - Help Save The Moonah Trees Planned For Removal At Torquay Bowls Club. Crown (Public) Land. Taylor Park, Torquay, Victoria, Australia.

This petition calls on the Surf Coast Shire Council to reject the application by the Torquay Bowls club (TBC) to remove approximately 60 trees in total, including approximately 40 Coastal Moonah trees. 

Why it’s important…

For all who care about wildlife, biodiversity, loss of wildlife food source, habitat and endangered species. 

Moonah trees are listed as threatened under the Flora and Fauna Guarantee Act 1988 (FFG) and their removal goes against the State's biodiversity strategy which requires applicants to demonstrate how they can avoid and minimise biodiversity impacts.

60 trees proposed to be removed, this is a massive amount of food and shelter that will impact the wildlife that rely on it.  Each tree has its  own ecological system, carrying thousands of insects and nectar when flowering. 

The club should be designing the expansion to avoid the Moonah's. It appears the club is trying to exploit loopholes that exempts some planted trees from the protection laws, however, early members of Friends of Taylor Park advise that these trees were planted over 20 years ago for the purpose of increasing biodiversity, particularly as habitat for birds. Today, there are over sixty species of birds that either live in or have been recorded in Taylor Park (also known as Djirnap – place of the white Cockatoo), including endangered and vulnerable species.

These trees have already been illegally lopped and damaged without a permit. There are large fines for damaging these very slow growing trees which provide a source of food and habitat for insects and birds including Gang-Gang Cockatoos which are listed as endangered under the Flora and Fauna Guarantee Act 1988 (FFG). 

There has been no fauna survey throughout the TBL application process. 

Wildlife Consideration

These Moonah’s trees are irreplaceable, even if you replace all 40 Moonah’s which would cost around $500 each for an eight year old tree, it would take at least another 10 or more years to replace these trees. Ideally, if a tree that is food, full of insects, nectar and shelter for wildlife, needs to be removed, you plant the tree then once it has grown to the point it can support what has been removed, you could then remove it. This may be an acceptable way forward. Removal all of these trees, takes away a massive food source and shelter for the wildlife who currently rely on it and call Taylor Park home. 

Most wildlife are territorial and cannot just move somewhere else. This line of Moonah’s is also a low lying, thick protective movement corridor for possums, including sugar gliders, and birds. It helps possums to feed without going on to the ground where predators such as foxes and cats could be, also important for fledgling birds that learn to fly by branch hopping. Many fledglings like the fledgling Wattlebird pictured, use this vegetation to hide from predators from above, while the parents gather food. These trees also protect wildlife in extreme weather conditions.

Please support the wildlife at Taylor Park by signing and sharing this petition, thank you.