Thread: Tassie Elm

Hanging anger led to cutting


Article from:

DAVID KILLICK
February 28, 2008 12:00am

A BLACKMANS Bay man cut down a 130-year-old elm tree in Franklin Square because he was angry about the public hanging of aborginals there, a court has heard.
Tour guide Paul Neville Paxton, 36, today pleaded guilty in the Hobart Magistrates' Court to unlawfully injuring property and committing a nuisance.
Police Prosecutor George Bird told the court Paxton drove to Franklin Square in central Hobart at 2.45am on July 10, 2005 armed with a chainsaw.
He cut almost completely through the tree's trunk before driving away.
Sergeant Bird said witnesses had captured the incident on mobile phone cameras and contacted police.
Hobart City Council had employed a tree surgeon, but the tree could not be saved and the subsequent removal operation had cost $10,450.
Police identified Paxton from a rambling note left at the scene and witness accounts and subsequently matched sawdust in his car and on a chainsaw at his parents' home with the tree, the court heard.
Defence lawyer Steve Chopping said Paxton had become angered after reading a Mercury article titled "Blacks in noisy call for land" the day before the offence.
From his own research he was aware Franklin Square has been used for public hangings, including that of aboriginal people.
He decided to cut down the tree because it represented the state's English heritage, he said.
"He decided to stage a protest. He did it at a time he'd consumed a large amount of alcohol," Mr Chopping told the court.
"This was a misplaced protest on the part of the defendant. It was not intended to be as serious as it became."
Magistrate Michael Hill convicted Paxton and fined him $500, plus court costs.
A police application for costs was adjourned.
The tree was believed to have been planted around 1875, possibly by Prince Alfred, Queen Victoria's second son and the first royal to visit Tasmania.