Lone Tree protester stops cutting of macrocarpa at Auckland housing development site

A “rebel” protester clinging to a 120-year-old macrocarpa tree at an Auckland housing development site remains the final barrier before its removal.

The Mana Rākau protest group has surrendered, and now says that the removal of the tree is the only way that Ockham and Marutūāhu’s collective development of 117 units in Avondale can go ahead.

Several protesters who occupied the tree last month now believe that keeping the tree in place would cost all parties tens of thousands of dollars and would put families who bought apartments under stress.

But Ockham said a remaining 18-year-old who has been in the tree at the corner of Ash St and Great North Rd since Tuesday is refusing to come down, halting operations.

Founder and Managing Director Mark Todd said there is a crane in place and the tree “will definitely be cut down in the foreseeable future, if not today, tomorrow.”

Arborist Zane Wedding, who had been leading the protests, said they haven’t been in vain.

“I would love for this tree to stay, but we realized that it wasn’t really going to happen anymore.”

Wedding said the protesters are instead focusing on the fight for general tree protection in Tāmaki Makaurau.

Expect at least 13 trees out of a list of 587 to receive protection.

“It allows us to save other trees in Avondale and shed light on the inability of Auckland City Council to protect trees,” he said.

“Some who are unprotected are precious taonga and I cannot understand why the council does not take the initiative.”

Todd publicly supports the call to resurrect the general urban tree protection policy.

“The city council needs to put on its socks and pay for 500 trees that are waiting to be scheduled, it is the only protection they can have in the current RMA [Resource Management Act] ambient.”

But he’s defending Ockham’s decision to take down Avondale’s macrocarp.

“We feel very comfortable with the process this tree went through.

“We have to balance the high-density apartment area, two blocks from the train station, and this aging macrocarpa with a four-meter crack in the middle, near the end of its life.”

The protests have not delayed construction of the units, which is due to begin later this month, Todd said.

Auckland City Council Chief Strategy Officer Megan Tyler said the council had listened to both parties and was happy to work with them through a private plan change request.