Currently, local councils do not plant large shade trees on streets with speeds above 50km/hr. This is because current guidelines state large shade trees present a safety risk to errant vehicles. However, the guidelines only consider one risk – the risk to the errant vehicle.

Funded by the NSW Government’s ‘Greening our City Grant Program,’ this innovative research project sought to identity all the risks Council and its community would be exposed to if large shade trees are not planted along its streets. Risks were considered across the categories of physical and mental health, environment, economy, infrastructure and policy.

A holistic and comprehensive risk assessment process was undertaken, with Council partnering with researchers from Western Sydney University, University of Wollongong and University of New South Wales. Council also engaged subject matter experts from the legal and work health and safety sectors, and invited representatives from Western Sydney Local Health District, Western Sydney Regional Organisation of Councils, Austroads and Transport for New South Wales to join in the workshopping process.

The research had tangible outcomes with risk-based legal advice recommending that Council should not adopt a blanket policy which prohibits the planting of non-frangible trees along its streets provided it takes a holistic, balanced, risk-based view of the risks created by planting non-frangible trees along our streets.

Photography by Matthew O’Connor