Farewell to a St Luke’s icon

The Moreton Bay Fig Tree on the corner of Scenic and Barrabool Roads

Today we farewelled an iconic Moreton Bay Fig tree that has stood on the corner of the St Luke’s property for many years. The decision to take it down has been really hard – St Luke’s has a proud history of caring for our environment.

In the last 12 months several branches have fallen during windy conditions, and the roots are making it increasingly difficult for City of Greater Geelong to keep the footpath safe for the increasing numbers going past. We sought advice from an arborist, landscape architect, and consulted with the City of Greater Geelong – all agreed with the final decision. To quote our landscape architect who admired the tree “unfortunately it is the wrong tree in the wrong place.”

As our carpark needs resurfacing to fix a number of hazards that have developed, we have taken the opportunity to redesign the whole corner with assistance from a local landscape architect to:

Introduce a native rain garden on the verge to help manage the water run off from the car park

Plan a range of new native trees and shrubs around the edges of the carpark to offer shade, animal habitat, and not impede traffic visibility at the roundabout

Incorporate trees into the carpark itself to provide shade and reduce urban heat

You will see lots happening in the coming months, as we work to continue to upgrade our site to be a great resource for our local community and the many users who come from across the region to participate in the many groups who use our buildings.