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House of Assembly - Fifty-Third Parliament, First Session (53-1)
2014-09-16 Daily Xml
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Norwood Cork Tree

Mr MARSHALL (Dunstan—Leader of the Opposition) (15:28): It is my great pleasure to rise today to speak on the Norwood cork tree, which has been growing adjacent to Edward Street in my electorate, the electorate of Dunstan. This is an excellent tree, a significant tree and one which the community has passionately worked together to protect. The cork tree was planted in 1892 by prominent industrialist Mr Henry Buttery. It was a great pleasure for me to speak to one of his descendants specifically about this tree in the electorate of Dunstan. Today, the tree is registered by the National Trust of Australia at No. 34 on the Significant Tree Register and it is in exceptional form. The cork tree was at risk of being removed after a development proposal was submitted to the Norwood, Payneham and St Peters council.

My electorate values community, it values heritage, open space and our environment—all values which, as the local member, I strive to represent at every opportunity. So, when members of my electorate heard about this issue, of course they raised these concerns with my office immediately, and then, in conjunction with the Norwood Residents Association, the Save the Norwood Cork Tree group was assembled, campaigning to ensure that the initial development application, which would have had the tree completely removed, did not proceed.

This group met regularly and lobbied the company proposing the development, as well as the council, on this matter. I would particularly like to draw the house's attention to the hard work of Lynette Arden, Carole Whitelock and Jim Dunk, who established this group and started the community campaign and petition. Of course, I would also like to acknowledge the many residents who joined this group and gave of their time voluntarily, including the former member for Norwood Mr Greg Crafter, who was involved.

When I first became involved, I committed to contacting Coles, who were proposing the development in Norwood. I must say that at all times they engaged very respectfully. I spoke initially with Mr Fabio Pagano, who put forward a proposal to remove the tree and relocate it. Apparently, this technology exists; I know that Michael Keelan was one who thought that this could potentially work. However, this was not favoured by the community because an alternative site was not obvious and also the likelihood of transplant was certainly not 100 per cent.

I was delighted when an alternative proposal for the redevelopment of Coles was agreed to by the company. That alternative involved keeping the cork tree in its exact situation. I think this is an excellent outcome for the community, I think it is an excellent outcome for the people of Norwood, and I certainly thank Coles for agreeing to this new arrangement.

I was delighted to have the Norwood Residents Association present me with a petition in March of this year, and on 22 May this year I tabled the Norwood cork tree petition in this place on behalf of over 1,000 signatories; in fact, to be precise, there were 1,111 signatures on that.

I would like to congratulate members of the local community, the Norwood, Payneham and St Peters council and Coles, who have listened to feedback and redesigned their plans accordingly to ensure that the Norwood cork tree could remain intact in its original place. This is a great result for all involved and a very obvious example to many other people of what can be achieved by different community groups working together.

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