String of trees on South West safety chopping block as residents push lower speeds instead

More than 20 trees on the Vasse-Yallingup Siding Road have been put on the chopping block in a South West city’s bid to improve safety, as residents and environmentalists push for a lower speed limit consideration instead.

The City of Busselton has applied for a permit through the Department of Water and Environmental Regulation to remove 26 old-growth trees along the Vasse-Yallingup Siding road as part of a $731,000 road-widening project funded though the State Government’s Black Spot Program.

Residents and environmentalists are urging the city to reconsider the application and instead reduce the speed limit of the road as the trees are prime habitat for critically endangered black cockatoos and western ringtail possums.

The rural road was the location of five crashes between December 2019 and January 2024, according to a Main Roads spokesperson, but locals are adamant the trees are not the issue.

Resident Felicity Bradshaw has lived along the road for 17 years and said while she believed sections did need safety attention, removing the trees would not help.

“These trees have been there forever, the only thing that has changed with this road is the volume, speed and recklessness with which people drive,” she said.

Mrs Bradshaw said she would much prefer the council looked at reducing the speed limit. She said prior to 2019 the speed limit on the road was 110km/h, before being knocked down to 90km/h.

“When the speed limit dropped in 2019, we immediately saw the number of accidents drop dramatically,” she said.

“Reducing the speed limit to 80km/h would probably go a long way to reduce the reckless driving that goes on.

“Do we really value what’s left of these unique biodiverse habitats fringing our county roads, that makes them so pretty, (less) than people who just want to to get where they’re going 10km/h faster?”

Wildflower Society of Western Australia management committee member Kelly Paterson said protecting fringing ecosystems was important for the cockatoos and possums who relied on them.

“Research shows black cockatoos really rely on these corridors of vegetation, so to keep chipping away at them is having a huge impact,” she said.

“Continuing this constant chipping away means it can start to slip though the cracks, and we don’t fully understand the cumulative impact all of this vegetation clearing has had.”

The City of Busselton’s application to DWER stated only one of the trees marked for destruction had signs of a hollow, which cockatoos would potentially use for nesting.

However, Dunsborough & Districts Progress Association member Tony Sharp said several of the trees showed signs of smaller hollows, with one tree even housing a western ringtail possum’s drey which was not identified within the application.

“An arborist may say don’t cut down tree 16 because there’s a hollow, or tree seven because there’s a possum drey, but that’s not good enough,” he said.

“There are fewer and fewer trees around maturing into nesting spots and we need to keep the ones that are there.

Mr Sharp said he hoped the city would chose to preserve the trees even if DWER granted the clearing permit.

“Cutting down these trees doesn’t solve the problem,” he said.

“This problem has already diminished dramatically since they lowered the speed limit.”

City of Busselton infrastructure and environment director Oliver Darby said while the project was being funded by the State Government, the city could address community concerns.

“The city is aware of a significant level of public interest, so a briefing on the proposed project will be provided to elected members before any works are scheduled and this will include an update on concerns raised by the community,” he said.

A spokesperson for DWER said it had received 32 submissions about the application and had asked the city to provide more information.

A Main Roads spokesperson said it understood the city was reviewing speed zones on a number of local roads within the city’s boundary.

However, they said Main Roads had not been formally approached by the city in regards to a reduction on the Vasse-Yallingup Siding Road.