Who gives a fig tree? Freo does, not
A COUNCIL decision to remove a Moreton Bay fig tree at 195 High Street from its register of significant plantings paves the way for property owners to cut it down before the historic site is sold and redeveloped.
“Get the cameras ready,” Fremantle Society president John Dowson told StreetWise today. “Better still, ask the mayor why she supports the most historic tree in Fremantle being axed when it’s perfectly healthy.”
Mr Dowson says the tree was on various heritage lists but removed and put ‘more appropriately’ on the significant tree register in 2019, apparently without the permission of the Cattalini family.
Pamela Cattalini, whose late husband John was mayor of Fremantle from 1984 to 1994, said potential buyers of the property were reluctant to make offers unless the messy tree was removed. This was confirmed with real estate agents who note the historic Webster site would be demolished given its decrepit state.
The Moreton Bay or Australian banyan was planted in the late 1880s, making this fig bearer more than 130 years old. (This author recalls swinging from it when my parents visited Dr Karutha Jayaraman surgery, one of Freo’s most respected and well-loved GPs still working in Bicton, aged 85).
Ms Cattalini told StreetWise today that for many years and since putting the property on the market, her family every day except on Sunday clean up debris left by the tree towering over the former Webster’s site, ‘Cranworth Villa’.
“My family and I go down at 6.30am every morning and clean up the mess,” she said, some of which also fell on council land. “It’s bad. We collect bucket loads of nuts, bucket loads of leaves. I’ve been doing it for years. I just don’t want to go down every morning to clean up.”
Mr Dowson said the family used to have an agreement with the City to share in the clean up of debris to avoid any unfortunate accidents involving members of the public. Unfortunately, he says Ms Cattalini’s call for help has fallen on deaf ears, Mr Dowson having asked City Ward Cr Adin Lang last October to help.
“Pam is trying to sell the property but because the large tree makes such a mess she is there most mornings sweeping the area,” he said, adding when he asked Cr Lang what happened, “he said he had done nothing”.
“Now, several months later, I find he has done nothing. Pam, the former mayor’s wife, is prepared to pay for help, but given the poor response from Cr Lang I wish to submit a complaint about his lack of empathy and help for an elderly ratepayer seeking assistance.”
He said the council decision meant that after not lifting a finger to help Ms Cattalini, the city has removed the listing allowing it to be cut down immediately.
“Her family will ensure that happens pronto,” he said. “It can’t and won’t ever be replanted. It took Fremantle Coouncil four years to accept four free Moreton Bay saplings from Guildford.”
To remove or not
Cr Sullivan last night argued keeping the tree on the register, “until such time as plans to redevelop the site have been granted planning approval”, and that, “for as long as the tree remains on the significant trees and vegetation areas register, the City will continue to provide assistance with tree maintenance including pruning, obstacle clearance and dead wood removal”.
Additionally, the City would enter into a legal agreement that confirms the listing of the tree on the significant trees and vegetation areas register will be removed following the issue of a planning approval for a redevelopment of the site.
Cr Archibald’s alternative recommendation knocked out Cr Sullivan’s recommendations (including the ‘pruning, obstacle clearance and dead wood removal’) and legal agreement on the basis that, “The current owner (of some 60 years) of 195 High St had not given permission for the tree to be included on the Register and in the City’s annual review of the Register has written to request that it be removed”.
The register was adopted at the ordinary council meeting on February 27, 2019, local planning policy 2.23 requiring that inclusion of a tree is to be authorised by the owner(s) of the land on which the tree is located: “At the time that trees formerly included on the Heritage List were transferred to the Register, the requirement for owner authorisation had not come into effect.”
Cr Doug Thompson added the acknowledgement, “that the tree may present unacceptable constraints to future development”.
Originally 241 High Street, the ‘dwelling house, garden and sheds’ was built for Philip Cranworth Webster in 1886. Webster owned the Esplanade Hotel in the 1860s and 1870s and was a council auditor, nurseryman and ‘great lover of flowers’.
According to State heritage records, “This particular tree is purported to be the progenitor of many of the Moreton Bay Fig trees in Fremantle, including the Proclamation Tree (which was planted in 1890)”. Webster also is credited with planting the Moreton Bays in the former Kings Square and at St John’s Church.
In 1893, Webster collapsed during a stroll in Fremantle Park and was taken back to his house where he died sitting on his verandah surrounding by his favourite plantings including the Moreton Bay sapling.
Reports describe the local area between Webster’s former house in nearby Adelaide Street and the front fence of 195 High Street as “a panorama of multiflorous loveliness”.
