The first few plants that really made an impression on me were the ones that i could climb.
In the tropical darwin gardens our yards looked like south east asian forests combined with native top end coastal species. Casuarina trees put our feet through hell on the foreshore with their tinny spiky cones that would cover the ground, Calophyllum inophyllums stood knarly and old in our school ground providing much amunition for school kid wars with their small culturally important and extremely hard nuts, elephant ears and many ferns grew under the mango trees around the house and carpentaria palms stood tall and bulging with itchy red berries. a tropical garden and a climate like Darwins produces cartoon like plants. Larger then life species of figs like the Banyan fig or Ficus benghalensis. Like i mentioned before the trees that originally made the biggest impression on me are the ones i could climb and Banyan figs must be the king of climbing trees.
These spectacular trees have a variety of uses. One of the interesting ones i heard of was that the aerial roots could be used as tooth brushes. In the Darwin area there are many historical or at least well known and loved banyan figs. Spit fire engines have been hung from the branches of one located near the old airfield during air raids from the Japanese and town meeting have been held in and around their trunks in the parks. These trees are not however native and are actually the national tree of India.
Recently a new generation of council members have set about making the parks more safe. Several of the old banyans have been removed including the example used previously of the banyan used in spitfire plane repair. This tree in particular was a favourite of mine and as a kid we spent half our lives climbing around it. Until recently i did not realise that the bits of old metal we would find grown into the branches where actually the remains of the plane work shop and also pieces of wreckage imbedded in the giant structure during cyclone Tracy in 1974. In fact it was not until a few days ago that i had these revelations and it was in the same article that i discovered that the tree was removed a year ago.
The counsel decided that the tree and others where accident prone areas for children and used as shelter for homeless people making them a hotspot for rubbish tips worth of broken glass and cans which added to the danger. King browns and other snakes where reportedly living the trees also. I broke my first bone falling out of a Banyan fig so i wouldn't disagree that they are a risk however it saddens me greatly that such old, magnificent and significant trees are now being removed over such issues.Bloody southerners... and they will be back in Adelaide or Sydney in 2 more years having done the damage to what used to be a great lifestyle up in our North.
I will do some research and provide some more information on this and also some more background info on Banyan Figs.
This is a website about the banyan tree spitfire plane workshop.
http://eyes4earth.org/banyan-trees-provide-more-than-shelter/
historical metal and amazing tree at one - interesting stuff
ReplyDeleteBloody southerners? Are we the ones make your parks sterile and "safe"...make your position clear sir! Do you mean that Darwin locals are never employed in decision making positions?
ReplyDeleteNo. That was a tad emotive of me. Darwin has a tendency to be a transient town is what i was trying to say. People come up for a couple of years and then go home having built there environmentally unfriendly air conditioned down south style block house on something.
ReplyDeleteTheir mark is clear. The suburb Bayview was built over a giant mangrove ecosystem and houses mainly people who are new to Darwin and wont be staying long.
My new nabours a few years ago cut down a very, very old African mahogany tree that had survived cyclone Tracy and every monsoonal wet since then. This tree shaded our house and forms a huge chunk of my childhood memories. These nabours where convinced that it would one day fall into our massive yard despite the house being out of reach of its magnificent branches. They worried a child might be standing out there in the middle of a cyclone when it fell and this irresponsible child be crushed. The tree also shaded their pool and dropped leaves in it which was the other reason they wanted it cut down. We begged them to leave it however they went ahead as it was just inside their boundary. They left the next year.
Also Territorians don't exactly agree with southerners when it comes to things such as nuclear waste dumps near our towns and communities or in our beautiful bush yet we don't get a say in this as we are a territory not a state. We also don't agree with the place being sold off to the U.S military however we don't get a say in this either and a new base is being constructed at the cost of more ecosystem destruction along the Darwin shores presently. Property developers from the south have mashed the waterfront, made our main street violent with big city clubs packed in one after the other, put McDonald and Thirsty Camel bottle shops next the the Aboriginal communities in the town.
The NT intervention went ahead without Territorians on its side either.
So yeah i do believe that Darwinians are often left out of the decision making process.
My position clear? I believe that remote possibilities of danger that can be avoided with common sense should not be the reason to remove trees or anything else that has been enjoyed by the community for a very long time and has historical value.
I think if we remove all risk taking from childhood we will end up with adults who cant make good judgment. The first risk they may take will end up being behind the wheel of a car.
Emotive issue im afraid and this is merely my opinion being on my blog.
DeleteSome people do enjoy Darwins new sterile replacement parks and trees.
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