• Some of the tree stumps visible through the keyhole in the construction fence
Sydney University last week killed young kookaburra birds and destroyed family nests in mature trees. It killed them when cutting down their trees according to a nearby resident who has walked his three dogs there daily and who has enjoyed watching the birds go through their annual life cycles.
For five years locals have asked the university to stop its plans to kill these birds.
By cutting down the grove of trees the university has trashed its social licence.
I’ve asked the Vice Chancellor Mark Scott to suspend its sustainability courses and withdraw its now worthless public Sustainability Strategy. It can’t teach what it can’t do on its own campus.
• Site plan shows the University knew it was killing bird and insect habitat, or ought to have known
The university, like all other universities, can give itself all the approvals it needs to build, destroy or to conserve.
The Save Darlington Grove group made clear to the university the natural bird, insect and heat cooling values of the site. There is no excuse for the university as it knew fully the impact of cutting down the trees.
Just outside the university boundary local council rules prevent tree removal by citizens without first obtaining approval which is rarely given.
So it’s one self-made rule for a ‘fount of knowledge and education’ - which made a billion dollar profit last year - and another rule for citizens. The university is an excellent demonstrator of what privilege, and abuse of it, looks like.
Recent media has exposed the university may be receiving money from suspected criminals, including this example with the abusive activities of an accounting firm identified in the Robodebt royal commission and with which the university is doing business as a partner.
• Yes, vice-chancellor Mark Scott, “Why don’t Australians love their institutions of higher learning the way Americans love theirs?”
I’ll also write to the uni folk running the “Master of sustainablity’ course to ask them to withdraw the course as it also now lacks a social licence and credibility.
• 11 tree trunks in this image
If Sydney University looked beyond its borders - educated itself - it could find many solutions. This example below is one of many and is provided here to show how, if one has some heart and love for trees and Earth, it's possible to at least save a tree, not kill it.
• In Japan, if a tree is ‘in the way of a road’ it is bound, moved and re-planted