24 March, 2025
A stretch of Yates gum trees at Goulburn Valley Water’s Mooroopna Wastewater Management Facility will be removed after becoming a safety concern at the site.
The Yates gum is not a species that grows naturally in the local area. Goulburn Valley Water planted the trees decades ago.
They have reached the end of their life and will be removed due to safety concerns about the trees continually dropping limbs. Works on the removal of the trees along Echuca Road to the north of Mooroopna, will start later this month.
Once this is complete new more appropriate shrubs and trees will be planted. People travelling along Echuca Road might notice the harvesting activity.
Goulburn Valley Water Managing Director Dr Steve Capewell said the removal of the trees was in line with Goulburn Valley Water protocols, which required trees which had reached the end of their lives and pose a risk to both employees and the community be removed from any site.
“We are regularly assessing the condition of trees on our land and these Yates gums present a potential danger to staff and infrastructure due to continually dropping limbs.
“The timing of this tree removal has come just as we are completing a tree harvest project at our Elderslie Farm site in North Shepparton,” he said.
Trees from this Shepparton harvest, which started late last month, resulted in the supply of hundreds of riverbank erosion pins to Goulburn Broken Catchment Management Authority (GBCMA) program.
Timber from the Mooroopna site tree harvesting will be available in the future as firewood.