Tree vandalism and poisoning in Redland City Council
Sailboats and dinghies bob on the calm waters of Redland Bay, while rainstorms swirl around distant mangrove-covered islands.
It’s a pretty good sight if you can catch it. An opinion some are willing to kill for.
The trees blocking the view in front of million-dollar homes have turned into a tangle of leafless branches.
A large tree at the top of a steep bank leading to the water has a ring cut through the bark around its trunk.
“It’s any tree that looks like it’s going to grow to a certain height,” says Paul Munroe, pointing to smaller, dead trees that may threaten to block out the view further down the bank.
Munroe and his wife, Sarah, have been cataloging examples around Redland City Council where they believe trees have been poisoned or removed.
In this case the council said they were aware of the vandalism but were unable to pin it down to a criminal.
Perhaps the most gruesome example the Munros found is a short ferry ride away from Karragarra Island, one of the islands visible from Redland Bay.
Similar scene. Large trees hardened and turned brown; The smaller ones turned into a bunch of twigs. Even the mangrove trees here seem to have been defaced.
In an email to Paul Munroe in May 2025, the council said it had found evidence of “mechanical intervention, torso injection and poisoning”.
“There was clear evidence of poisoning of large trees, sudden death of slow-growing species and significant grass mortality,” the council official said.
Last week the council issued an appeal for residents to report such behavior, citing a six-metre tree felled on Stradbroke Island.
Across Redlands, the city has received 75 complaints of tree vandalism since the beginning of 2020.
A spokesman said this was an understandably difficult area to enforce, but was currently a matter before the magistrates’ court.
“Council strongly encourages the community to assist in any way they can in monitoring, identifying and preventing vegetation vandalism,” they said.
After the field at Karragarra, the Munros walk to a field a few hundred meters away, where water flows through a gap in the mangroves that must have opened decades ago.
Salt water flows directly into the pastures protected by the municipality and gradually erodes the island.
If you travel around these islands, it is not uncommon to see breaks like this, or areas where the mangroves have become dry and brittle.
Back on the mainland, about a kilometer from the Redland Bay area, an unnatural gap opens up.
Downriver, long-leaf weeds dominate, but up there, there’s a view you’d kill for.
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