Keven Burke remembers horses galloping full pelt around sparsely populated Berridale on the Monaro high plains about 80 years ago, and a fearful lesson of being in the wrong place, at the wrong time.
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"Tom and Amby O'Brien and I lay in that gutter down there and waited for the race to come past," Mr Burke said. "They were terrible fellows those jockeys,whacking into one another." In this particular race, fierce jostling dislodged a jockey who hit a furlong post and was killed in front of the boys, who were aged about 11.
One of the few surviving children who planted the village's avenue of poplars in 1935, Mr Burke has watched them fulfil a promise made in the press at the time, of rising like golden spires in the sky. He later worked as a shearer, wood carter and truck driver and served as shire president and mayor.
Today Berridale's fluttering poplars are in the wrong place at the wrong time. Authorities fear damage to homes and litigation, and are thinning them. In Berridale and Braidwood and along rural roads where early frosts turn their shimmering green leaves to yellow, 80 year-old elegant giants are being replaced by younger trees planted out of harm's way.
Snowy River Shire is removing 44 trees in designated blocks over the next decade at Berridale. This started a year ago, when 12 trees were removed, and another six will go this April. The shire's operations manager, Gary Shakespeare, said tree root damage to homes and infrastructure led to the decision, following an arborist's assessment.
Mr Burke says the trees preceded homes and shops. "There was none of this here when they were planted," he says, pointing to buildings. "There used to be an old shop where that service station is, there wasn't a house on this road. I don't like it [the tree thinning] but what can you do?"
The tree-thinning horrifies Berridale resident Cheryl Mould who asked for a second opinion, to no avail. "I think they are Berridale, they have been there a long time," she said. "I have spoken to Roads and Maritime Services, they are looking to remove them on the outskirts of town, they went down that track three or four years ago."
Mrs Mould said the council had been warned much earlier unless they maintained the trees, problems would arise. "We are known as the tree-less plains which is due to all the volcanic components, and when you look across the Monaro it is very barren. Our poplars are iconic. The autumn colours are spectacular. The frosts give them that vibrancy."
Mr Burke's son Ian, a historian, says World War I's deaths and casualties took a higher toll on Berridale than the national average and the Depression caused great poverty there. "We are reminded of this by the tree plantings – the cypress trees planted in 1934 in the Memorial Park in memory of slain soldiers beside the war memorial, leading on to the glorious sweep of the poplar avenue – which was planted in May 1935 in commemoration of King George V's Silver Jubilee."
On the northern approach to Braidwood, Roads and Maritime Services will replace the avenue of poplars with new ones, once cuttings reach five metres. Arborist Dennis Dempsey said a wire rope fence would be a better option.
"They will be so far out we will lose the avenue affect," he said. "The trees colour all year, they are turning yellowy golden, they give the town an address. It is our heritage, our history, commemoration of our war dead. It is as if we are cutting down our soldiers."
