Tree Man vows to continue protest despite fire
- PerthNow
- March 06, 2010
RICHARD Pennicuik has vowed to continue his tree-top protest in WA – despite an Australian flag hanging from the branches being set on fire.
Mr Pennicuik, 57, said three men parked a Land Rover utility underneath the verge-side gum tree in Thornlie that he is trying to save about 2am this morning.
“They were yelling out ‘Tree Man, Tree Man’,” he said.
“I would not make a noise because they could not see me, it was dark.
“That’s the way we operate, we don’t try to make trouble with the neighbours.
“They just started laughing and drove off.
“I was yelling out to my friend at the bottom ‘Ashley, Ashley’ because they had gone to another tree.
“All of a sudden, I noticed the Australian flag we put in the tree 30 days ago was on fire.
“My mate was trying to put it out with his beanie.
“He was jumping up in the air because it was up pretty high. It was obviously pre-planned because they drove up onto the verge and right underneath.
“Not much patriotism there, is there?”
Mr Pennicuik said it could have ended his one-man campaign to save the Eucalypt, which Gosnells Council says is unsafe and should be cut down.
“If the tree had caught fire, well Eucalypts have got a lot of oil in them,” he said.
“If it (fire) had taken off that would have been it, I would have had to jump out of the tree.”
Mr Pennicuik has been in the tree since December 7 last year.
as posted here
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