Sailboats and dinghies bob on the calm waters of Redland Bay as squalls of rain swirl around mangrove edged islands in the distance.
It’s a pretty good view if you can get it. A view some are willing to kill for.
In front of million-dollar homes, trees that would obscure the view have been turned to a tangle of leafless branches.
Around the trunk of a large tree on the top of a steep bank that leads to the water is a ring cut through the bark.
“It’s any tree that looks like it is going to grow over a certain height,” says Paul Munroe, pointing out smaller dead trees that would have threatened to block the view further down the bank.
Munroe and his wife Sarah have been cataloguing instances around Redland City Council where they think trees have been poisoned or taken out.
In this case, the council says they are aware of the vandalism, but have been unable to pin it on a culprit.
Perhaps the most egregious example the Munroes have found is a short ferry ride away on Karragarra Island, one of the islands that can be seen from Redland Bay.
It’s a similar scene. Big trees gone rigid and brown; smaller ones turned to a bunch of twigs. Even the mangroves here appear to have been tampered with.
In an email sent to Paul Munroe in May 2025, the council said it had found proof of “mechanical intervention, stem injection, and poisoning”.
“There was clear evidence of poisoning of large trees, sudden death of low-growing regrowth species, and significant grass kill,” the council officer said.
Last week the council put out a call for residents to report such behaviour, citing a six-metre tree that had been cut down on Stradbroke Island.
Across the Redlands, there have been 75 complaints of tree vandalism to the council since the beginning of 2020.
A spokesperson said it is an understandably tricky area to enforce, but they had one matter currently before the magistrates court.
“Council strongly encourages the community to assist where they can in the monitoring, identification and prevention of vegetation vandalism,” they said.
After the site on Karragarra, the Munroes walk to an area a few hundred metres away where water laps through a gap in the mangroves that would have been cleared decades ago.
The salt water rushes straight on to grassland maintained by council, slowly eating away at the island.
If you walk around these islands, it is not unusual to see breaks like this, or areas where the mangroves have become dry and brittle.
Back on the mainland, about a kilometre from the Redland Bay site, an unnatural gap opens up.
Long-bladed weeds have taken over down the bank, but over the top is a view you’d kill for.
Start the day with a summary of the day’s most important and interesting stories, analysis and insights. Sign up for our Morning Edition newsletter.
From our partners
Read the full article here
