Condemned tree in Whangārei's CBD felled without incident

The cityscape in Whangārei's CBD has changed noticeably after the local council was forced to fell one of the biggest trees on Cameron St on Wednesday night.

The nearly 50-year old tree – thought to be an East African mahogany – was condemned by several arborists after a large 500mm crack was discovered in one of its stems.

Contractors started cutting down the tree outside Michael Hill after business hours on Wednesday to reduce disruptions for shops and pedestrians and continued their work on Thursday.

Stuart Jackson, technical officer of the Parks and Recreation Department at Whangārei District Council, said everything had been done safely and without harm to the public or property, which was an indication of success.

Council initially predicted felling the tree would take two evening buts Jackson said it was hard to put an exact time frame on this and their main focus was safety rather than working fast.

Half the tree was still standing on Thursday morning. Photo / Michael Cunningham

After the crack in the tree was spotted just before Christmas, council had been monitoring the tree and secured the stem with strops.

Together with arborists, council had looked into options to save the tree and considered trimming or stabilising the tree with metal braces but neither were workable options.

If they had removed the damaged stem, contractors would have had to reduce the tree by at least 50 per cent to adapt to new wind loading and the possibility of more branches breaking would have been high.

Two other trees – jacarandas planted next to the mahogany – were damaged during the works on Wednesday and also had to be removed.

While council hasn't made a decision yet about what will happen to the empty spot in the middle of the Cameron St mall, Whangārei-born man Reuben Williams would love to see native plants grow there.

"Me and my family we like to sit down on Cameron St when we're in the CBD. The trees offer shade and noise reduction. I would like to see the exotic tree be replaced with native trees and maybe plants that might attract birds into town."

Whangārei District Council's Parks and Recreation technical officer Stuart Jackson was on site while the tree was taken down. Photo / Michael Cunningham

Williams had worked for the Department of Conservation for 20 years and said, as a Māori, he believed exotic trees had their place in New Zealand, however, native trees were of cultural significance.

He said while he wasn't sure what motivated local government to remove the tree, he endorsed it if the decision was made to keep the public safe.