A senior who saved a tree from the chop while wearing a nightie and brandishing a walking stick has been inducted as an honorary life member of WA Tree Canopy Advocates.
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Caroline Lacy, a resident of Melvista Lodge retirement village in Nedlands, forced contractors to put down their chainsaws after she stood under a mature box tree that was about to be felled as part of construction work for a new aged care facility.
She said the development had already led to the loss of a magnificent canopy gum tree and dozens of trees in the park across the road had to be removed to stop the spread of the polyphagous shot hole borer.
"So when I heard the chainsaws again, I had a red mist and just thought we cannot afford to lose any more trees. I put my coat on over my nightie, shoved on my shoes and me and my walking stick went down."
Caroline said she yelled at the contractors and got them to stop what they were doing.
"The tree loppers were very polite young men. At one point, the team leader gave me his arm in case I slipped on the box tree nuts.
"Then he got distracted by one of his colleagues and I was able to slip around behind him and get to the tree.
"I put my back up against the tree, stuck out my walking stick and said, 'This is it, I'm staying, I'm not moving'."
Then other neighbours came out. The tree loppers called their boss and were told to stand down. The upshot? Nedlands Council rescinded permission for the developer to remove the tree.
Caroline was stunned by the response once the story reached social media. "Somebody referred to me as 'The Dark Nightie', which I thought was hilarious."
She was inspired to act in honour of her aunt who, about 30 years ago and aged in her 70s was fighting for the prevention of logging in old growth native forests. "She was busy chaining herself to bulldozers and being very cross that the police would not arrest her because of the bad PR."
In November, Nedlands council passed a resolution that any verge tree above five metres in height which was not dead, diseased or dying come before council for approval to remove.
