“I did not give permission for this tree to be put on the significant tree list and as it is on private property I do not know why it is on the list,” she said.
Cattalini said she had been trying to sell the property, but buyers did not want to take on the job of cleaning up after the tree, which had also damaged a wall.
City of Fremantle Mayor Hannah Fitzhardinge said it had been a difficult and complicated decision for the council.
But she said the property’s owners had never consented to having the tree listed on the city register, which prompted the decision to remove it.
Fitzhardinge said if the decision was taken away from private owners and enforced, there was a risk of people preemptively cutting down trees.
“That’s absolutely the last thing that we need at the moment because we need to protect the canopy,” she told 6PR.
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“The decision wasn’t to cut down the tree. The decision was to take it off a register that it probably should never have gone on in the first place.
“It’s really going to be a case of what’s the vision of the person who buys that property, and do they think that the tree could be part of it.”
However, upper house Greens MP Brad Pettitt, who was Fremantle’s mayor before his move to state politics, said there was no requirement for the landowner’s agreement for the tree to be put on the register, as it was merely being moved from another heritage register.
“Fremantle council had the discretion to keep the tree on the register and were advised by the City of Fremantle to do so. The council went against professional staff advice in removing this tree from the register,” he told this masthead.
“The owners have tried for decades to enable this significant tree to be cut down, and it is disappointing the council have finally caved in to this request.
“I’m still hopeful council will listen to the public outcry and reverse this decision. There is an opportunity here to work with the landowner, and future developers, to provide incentives to develop around it that can provide a win-win for everyone.”
Pendal did not agree that leaving the tree on the protected register would create a precedent of residents preemptively cutting others down.
“I think the City of Fremantle could also say [to the new owners], ‘Look, let’s incentivise you to put it back on the register. What planning levers can we pull?’,” he said.
Pettitt lashed the state government for failing to protect trees, which meant “the only tool we have are significant tree registers”.
“To see these registers white-anted, while losing trees elsewhere across Perth to the shot-hole borer, is devastating,” he said.
A community meeting will be held in Fremantle at 12.30pm on Thursday to discuss the issue further.