Shock call in Possum Park court case
After four hours in Federal Court, a judge has made a call on a bid to halt park lands tree felling. Both parties are claiming a win despite the judge conceding his decision would “be unsatisfactory to all concerned”.
The state government must give the courts, a public servant and a Traditional Owner 48 hours’ written notice if it plans to fell a tree more than 3.5 metres tall at the North Adelaide Golf Course site, Federal Court judge Michael Feutrill determined today.
Feutrill, a Western Australian judge, made the call in the case between public servant Edwin Kemp Attrill and the state of South Australia after about four hours of hearing from both parties’ legal representatives.
“Where I have landed is a place that will probably be unsatisfactory to all concerned,” Feutrill said in court via video link.
Also revealed in court today was that 185 trees of a total 585 had yet to be chopped down for the North Adelaide Golf Course redevelopment.
The notice period allows Kemp Attrill and Kaurna traditional owner Janette Milera to bring the matter back to court if they believe a tree should not be felled.
Feutrill said his order was “appropriate” because there was not an “imminent threat to the removal of trees”.
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It comes about a week after Kaurna traditional owner Milera and Kemp Attrill said they would take South Australia’s Department of Premier and Cabinet to court.
Milera and Kemp Attrill commenced proceedings in order to force the state government to immediately stop works on the North Adelaide site and to test the North Adelaide Golf Course Act introduced by the government last year against national environment and heritage legislation.
The bid to immediately stop work at the golf course was unsuccessful, which the government has claimed as a win.
City of Adelaide Minister Lucy Hood said the government welcomed the decision, noting work could continue on the “exciting project”.
Kemp Attrill also claimed the judge’s decision as a win, saying it “has been a huge day for the protection of the park lands” and was “a really significant step forward”.
“We would have liked complete stop, but we recognise that the judge has still put restrictions on at least the removal of trees,” Kemp Attrill said.
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A lawyer representing the Department of Premier and Cabinet, appearing via video call, said the next four to five weeks of construction at the golf course site would involve “substantial earthworks” and irrigation, but that no trees were planned to come down.
More trees to be felled, court hears
Judge Feutrill also heard today that 185 trees of a total of 585 were yet to be felled for the North Adelaide Golf Course redevelopment.
The government announced that 585 trees would come down for the Golf Course redevelopment in November last year. Lawyers for the government argued this was the equivalent of six per cent of the trees on site.
Kemp Attrill’s lawyer argued that 585 trees were “a forest”.
After the court adjourned, Hood said it was “important to consider… a significant number of those 585 trees” were introduced or invasive species planted to make the current golf course more challenging.
“So this actually gives us an opportunity to plant more native vegetation, more native trees, and provide a better long-term tree canopy for future generations,” Hood said.
The gallery included about 20 supporters of Kemp Attrill’s cause.
In terms of the larger ask to test the development against the federal Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Act, both parties have the opportunity to file further documents with the court in the coming weeks.
The matter will return to court after July 1.
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