A visit to Jomac Place

Seeing as I was down Rosebank way, taking photographs of traffic control boxes and old dairies, I decided to walk a bit further, and visit Jomac Place, before much of the industrial zone development hides the landscape forever.

Readers of Timespanner will already be aware of my feelings about the name "Jomac Place." I see, just to emphasise things, this is one of the few streets in Auckland with not one, but two street signs. Just in case you forget the name. As if ...

Of course, by far the most famous part of the Jomac Place landscape are two trees -- the oak (left) and the pohutukawa (right).

The pohutukawa at the moment is the one at most risk. It's been the subject of appeals, submissions, voluminous reports, hearings, many inches of newspaper comment and aggrieved letters, and (at the time of writing) is still subject to a planned Environment Court hearing where the developer wants it gone, and the Tree Council plus locals from Avondale say no. A stragly old tree causing a lot of paperwork (which, in turn, means more trees getting the chop to provide the paper, but ...)

Its companion oak is at less risk, but there are concerns for it should the pohutukawa get the chop, and ensuing works at the development impact on the rootspace for the tree.

Meanwhile, the developer seems fond of trees in other places. More have been planted beside the footpaths along the new road.

This used to be ploughed land, where cabbages grew. Today, before the rest of the development takes hold, it is full of weeds, sparrows darting about, and white butterflies. You can almost imagine it back in its heyday as a market garden. Indeed, this, the Connell-Copsey family holdings, was the last of the great market gardens on the peninsula.

So, there we have it. I guess in a couple of years, I might wander on down to see all the wild green disappeared, tamed perhaps in manicured verges and tiny lawns in from of office and light industrial buildings. It's anyone's guess, at the moment, whether the two most famous trees in Avondale will survive.