Arguments over the fate of several pine trees outside an inner south housing complex led to a heated dispute lasting hours between residents of a Yarralumla street.
Multiple residents along Black Street in the inner south suburb attempted to block the felling of 11 large trees from out the front of the Yarralumla Shores complex.
While the felling of the trees was approved by the complex's executive committee, owners and other residents in the complex said they received no notice of the decision.
One owner, who declined to be named, told The Canberra Times she only found out about the decision after tree fellers turned up at the complex in the early hours of Monday morning to remove the trees.
Soon after the arrival of tree fellers, many other residents along the street then came out in an attempt to stop the removal of the trees.
Threats were made during the argument to take the decision to the ACT Civil and Administrative Tribunal, should the trees be chopped down.
While the trees were planted on private land belonging to Yarralumla Shores, they are located near communal pathways that connect to nearby streets and public reserves.
The dispute between members of the executive committee and owners of the complex along with other residents along the street led to a representative from ACT City Services being called in to assess the trees and whether they should be removed.
The representative told the arguing parties that aside from trimming dead branches off the 11 trees, they were healthy, although City Services said they had no authority to stop the removal of the trees as it was on private property.
After more than an hour of heated talks between the two parties, a compromise was reached where the tree fellers would chop down some of the smaller trees in the cluster, leading to seven of the trees still remaining on the property.
Yarralumla resident Frank van de Loo said the compromise between the two groups was a common-sense decision.
"I look out on the area of the street all the time and I care about those trees because they are part of our landscape," Mr van de Loo said.
