Tree Man Protest Is A Farce

AS POSTED HERE ---> Tree Man Protest Is A Farce

Didn't Richard Pennicuik scrub up a treat yesterday?

Resplendent he was in tie, suit, shave and polyester Hushpuppies, courtesy of a Perth commercial radio station.

And, lest the erstwhile 'Tree Man' be accused of selling out, he issued a stark warning.

"You do know I'm going to use this," he announced ominously over the airwaves.

"There are big things to come."

Mr Pennicuik was true to his word.

For even before the clippers had descended upon his wiry sideburns, two of his supporters had scaled the Thornlie gum he vacated on Friday after his four-month arboreal protest against its felling.

There's a lesson in this for the next local council vexed with a similar tree man and/or woman.

And that is, the moment the gum-nut finally winches themselves down from their lofty perch, act swiftly to fell their chloro-filled tower of babble.

Gosnells City Council contends tree surgeons were in short supply after last Monday's mega storm.

But surely, some trees were being lopped in the area, post storm. And surely the one outside Mr Pennicuik's Hume Road home should have been made a priority, with a special penalty rate paid to the successful lopper.

Certainly his neighbours - who've been bedevilled day and night by TV crews, vandals and passing bogans (or perhaps a bizarre intersection set of all three) - would have supported a bounty being placed on the errant eucalypt.

Let's remember, the tree in question is not a West Australian native.

The species is an introduced weed - an Eastern states eucalpyt among several dubbed 'widow-makers' because their hefty limbs tend to crash unexpectedly to the ground.

And the council was planning to plant new - probably WA native - trees anyway.

Instead, due to council procrastination, the farcical stalemate will drag into a fifth month - with those who've stepped into the shoes of the 'Tree Man' saying they're prepared to ride out the winter.

And with Mr Pennicuik now taking a leaf from Darryl Kerrigan's book and quoting chunks of the Australian Constitution, Perth Airport could be next on his hit-list