A LAVINGTON resident is shocked by a decision to cut down a hedge he says has historic significance.
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Adam Morris was walking his dog when he saw the hedge near the Bungambrawatha Creek in Greta Drive, Hamilton Valley, being removed.
“We noticed some excavators at the back of some of the plots for sale,” he said.
“They’ve ripped the whole bloody lot out.”
Mr Morris said he saw a lot of the work happening at the weekend, “and they’re still tidying up now”.
“I’d say it was about 50 metres of hedge,” he said.
Mr Morris said he “couldn’t believe” the hedge was being removed.
“Some of the other neighbours told me that as far as they were aware if was a very historic hedge that should have had heritage listing,” he said.
“They were surprised as much as I was that it had gone.”
Mr Morris said the osage orange hedge did not need to be removed for the sake of the Centaur Park development.
“The hedge was right on the edge of the creek, so it’s not as if they could build on where it was,” he said.
Mr Morris said the osage orange hedge was significant because these were considered quite rare in rural NSW, most having been planted before 1875.
The age of the Centaur Park hedge is not known.
Mr Morris said residents had not been notified of the impending removal of the hedge.
He initially thought the decision may have rested with Albury Council.
But a council spokeswoman said the council was not involved, instead it was a matter for the NSW Office of Water.
A NSW Office of Water spokeswoman said the hedge was removed as a result of the developers of Centaur Park submitting a “riparian corridor rehabilitation plan” for the area covering the creek.
That was part of the developer’s overall submission plans.
“That plan identified osage orange as an emerging problem that was forming a dense barrier and providing a trellis for blackberry,” she said.
As a result, the plan recommended the osage orange be managed like a woody weed — that is, removed and taken away.
The removal work began on May 4.
The spokeswoman said nearby residents did not need to be notified about the creek works.
“The entire development went through the integrated development process and as such would have been advertised prior to development consent being issued by (Albury) council,” she said.