Ponsonby has a lost a very special and impressive natural feature : 'our' precious trees that included a coral and oak tree.
Maybe we can't call it 'our' tree, as it's a privately owned site. But then who really owns living things anyway? In a communal sense, it was 'our' tree - our beautiful coral tree; a stunning Erythrina crista-galli specimen that had stood like a sentinel on the site of the Ponsonby Central car park near the corner of Ponsonby Road and Richmond Road for more years then anyone can remember. This massive deciduous tree flowered every Christmas and residents would break off the bright fiery red flowers for festive decorations. Some of us remember the old house that stood adjacent to it and the legend (or urban myth) of a murder and a body being buried there. Maybe even under that tree, as it goes back to that time! The site is, as most of Auckland appears nowadays, under development.
The coral tree might more aptly be called a Brazilian coral tree. It was naturally, if you can excuse the pun, not a native thus despite being a feature of our area and showering the Richmond Road pathway with flower petals every December, was not judged worthy of protection. Just simply 'always been there' as one of our oldest locals commented recently, is not an argument that stands up at a hearing or can be measured or justified against the clarity of a square meter of chargeable office floor space.
It didn't go quietly. Apart from chainsaws going for two days, residents in the area had attended many hearings concerning the development of the site and had tried in the early days to save it. A number of resource consent applications (4 Brown Street) had been submitted over the last 30 years that included development for a supermarket, a liquor outlet, a weird post Parnell mansard roof residential apartment complex and more laterly, an underground car-park and retail and office space crowned by a luxury apartment.
Residents had regularly trudged along to argue for the protection of the trees on the site and adjacent to it and the plethora of details relating to the development of the site. I personally was told after attending two days of hearings over 10 years ago that it was just 'a test' of what could be done for the site. I forsook two days of pay for that 'test'. Locals trying to stop residential amenity being destroyed by a thousand cuts require superhuman tenacity against those that know better and claim more right. You feel as though you are against some kind of masterplan, not that anyone can actually articulate what this is and who decided it. It ends not being so much a masterplan, but a matter of different motivations and values. Why not design something that accommodates trees, rather then destroys them? After all they constitute the very features that defines the place and gave it its value.
At one of the hearings, an arborist report was submitted. It claimed the tree had internal rot and its life was limited. As you can see from the photo of it being cut, (the photographs with the man with the chainsaw) - we are able to confirm what we already knew - that this specialist's report was a complete fabrication, a red herring. At that hearing, I recall at six lawyers in black suits, four planners, an arborist, a noise specialist, and a traffic and building expert.
Not so much a partridge on a coral tree but rather a dull room full of intimidating professionals. Residents noted that the drawing scale for the apartment block was completely out of scale. Just a subtle detail, but part of the smooth system of
pre-planning meetings between developers, lawyers and council and well managed process framed by 'experts' who incidentally are paid for by developers. By the time naive well intentions residents roll up with their tree hugging ways for an audience with the nodding commissioners; let's face it, it's a box ticking exercise. How do you quantify beauty and the aesthetic of a tree against systems from another universe orbited by specialist data and an entirely different value system? A least we are fortunate to now have a reasonably sensitive and responsible developer for the site. It could have been far worse, we could have got mock 19th Century France.
So, we tried. We as residents attended the hearings. We pushed against the inevitable.
I made a point of being there to witness the passing of 'Coral' and made those removing the trees nervous taking photos to record the matter. Some of us get up in the morning thinking how to make a dollar, some of us get up to the sound of chainsaws and mourning the loss of our communal wealth. Looking through the protective barriers, I said a sad wee waiata for 'our' tree, as a last action to recognise the loss of a beautiful living feature of our community. A great tree has fallen and with it another link to 'old Ponsonby'. It's starting to look a lot less like Christmas. We are also starting to look
a lot less like Ponsonby, and a lot more like Newmarket.
Kai te hiahia (a wishing), Kai te koronga (a desiring), Kai a Tane (for Tane).
Russell Hoban, Ponsonby