It is hard to picture the heritage-listed Perth suburb of Guildford without the more than hundred-year-old sugar gum trees shading the main street.
But 25 years ago, locals took to the streets in protest to save 26 gums from the chainsaw after a council report claimed they were in poor condition and not structurally stable.
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Now, the community has a dedicated festival — Sugar Gum Day — to remember the grassroots movement that saved their beloved eucalypts.
Organisers of the 1999 campaign, Patsy Molloy and Christine Hughes, remembered the community springing into action: students camping in the branches of the trees, placards in local shop windows and hundreds of protesters.
Students camped out in the trees overnight in 1999 as part of the community action. (Supplied )
“We had to act fast and get a rally together on the Saturday morning, and about 200 people came, and we started getting organised to stop them,” Ms Molloy said.
Patsy Molloy and Christine Hughes organised the original 1999 protests to save the sugar gum trees. (ABC Radio Perth: Kate Leaver)
“The first emergency kind of action was going to be, if they brought the cherry pickers in, please come en masse.
“I was getting frantic messages from the Minister for Heritage’s office and the council because we clogged up the phone lines.
“We had radio stations and the televisions on, ringing us up saying, ‘Are the cherry pickers coming in?'”
Christine Hughes, then-president of the Guildford Association, said: “And it escalated quite dramatically from that point on, and by July, we were living under the trees.”
Guildford made history in 2019 as the largest precinct on the WA’s heritage register. (ABC Radio Perth: Kate Leaver)
“The trees do have a significant civic marker in that they were planted to mark Queen Victoria’s Jubilee, which was in 1897, so they were of great long-standing,” she said.
“But we were by no means the first people to preserve them. We can demonstrate at least five campaigns going back to the 1930s to save them.”
Ms Hughes recalled tense negotiations with the council, but eventually, people power saved the trees once again, with the council agreeing to maintain and prune them.
“We raised money to take out a Supreme Court injunction if we needed to, and a letter to that effect had an impact,” she said.
“The City [of Swan] is pretty diligent about checking them to see which branches need to be pruned.”
Locals have fought to save Guildford’s historic sugar gums multiple times over their 100-year history. (Supplied: Hazel Johnson)
Cliff Frewing was the acting City of Swan chief executive at the time and helped liaise between the protesters and the council.
“We engaged three arboriculturists to provide professional advice and it was untimely decided that the majority of the sugar gum trees could remain with pruning maintenance,” he said.
“It was a difficult time, but the council … responded appropriately to community concerns, and took the proper course of action and ultimately changed its view on the requirements to preserve the trees.”
Still standing
But it was not just in 1999 that people power saved the Guildford sugar gum trees from the axe.
Patsy Molloy and other protesters handed out thousands of leaflets urging people to help. (Supplied)
In 1950, the Guildford council was faced with plans submitted by the State Electricity Commission to install a 66,000-volt power cable through a main street and reserve, which would have led to the removal of the trees.
At the time, former councillor Anderson said: “Guildford’s gum trees are beautiful and one of the features of the town and it would be criminal if they were disfigured”.
Strong community opposition led to the commission rerouting the power to the south side of the road to avoid the trees.
James Street in 1949. (Supplied: State Library WA )
Another attempt to remove the trees was made in 1953 when the WA Main Roads department widened the streets in Guildford and initially proposed removing 21 trees.
Once again, thanks to a petition to the council, local campaigners saved most of their beloved trees.
Branching out for future generations
With Perth’s tree canopy cover the lowest of all Australian capital cities, sitting under 20 per cent, Ms Hughes said it was vital to instil a sense of ownership for the sugar gums with younger generations through the community’s Sugar Gum Day.
“When you look at some historical writings, poems have been written about them, songs have been written about them,” she said.
“We certainly have tried to involve young people in this current event, to try and get that connection.”
Christine Hughes addresses the protesters in 1999. (Supplied: Guildford Association)
Current Guildford Association president Claire Scanlan said the community festival to celebrate the longevity of the trees was a popular idea.
“It’s unthinkable now that they could ever be destroyed, but back in 1999, we were very close to losing them, and we think it’s important to remind everyone how precious they are,” Ms Scanlan said.
“We want to celebrate those original campaigners and acknowledge the City of Swan’s agreement to the community to preserve the iconic trees.
“Pretty much wherever you are in Guildford, you’re within sight of a beautiful sugar gum.
“Guildford just wouldn’t be Guildford without them.”
City of Swan Mayor Tanya Richardson said the council had worked with the community to install fence-and-rail bollards, new no-parking signage and hedging to protect the sugar gums’ delicate root systems.
“We’re very grateful for the residents who campaigned 25 years ago to protect these beautiful natural assets and we will continue to work with them to conserve these trees for years to come.”
