Ainslie community remember the famed ‘leaning tree’

The Canberra Times

Tim The Yowie Man speaks to Ainslie locals about their memories of the famous ‘leaning tree’, or ‘bent tree’ on Paterson Street outside the century-old Corroboree Park.

Transcript

00:00It's been an iconic part of the local community for generations but now that

00:06the Ainsley Leaning Tree is dead, locals are reflecting on its significance and

00:12also pondering its preservation. My children playing on this tree when they

00:18were little coming to the park playing on the old play equipment that's no longer there

00:22and we just love it it's just one of those things you play on it you sit on it

00:27you know kids climb all over it it's the logo for the crane. Last year when I

00:32brought my children here because I could tell that it was dying so I dragged both

00:37my adult children here to get a photo on it on it so my I went into labor in that

00:42down the street with my daughter some nearly 36 years ago. Well I wasn't here

00:46as a kid but I brought my two young daughters here I used to sit here and get

00:51in their way when they walk along the tree but they'd both walk from the bottom of

00:56it. At that stage the tree was about a meter off of the ground so they'd get up

01:00to the top and then have to jump off and then there is more recently since it's

01:04it's fallen down I've had a couple of granddaughters and they've done exactly

01:08the same thing on the way to school. Since it's now dead I'd like to see this

01:13piece at the end taken away because I think that's the danger. The rest of the

01:18tree I think is probably fairly stable. If it's determined that it's not stable I'd

01:24like to see something begin to stabilize it and make sure that it stays as it is for years to come.

01:30We're coming up to the centenary of this heritage area that the bit that we do

01:35chop off that bit for safety reasons that that be used to build or strengthen

01:40that story of the Canberra heritage as well as the indigenous heritage but as far

01:46as preserving this I think yeah some serious work or thought needs to be put

01:49into how we preserve this in place if possible so that doesn't just rot in

01:53place. I've always called it the leaning tree but in the when they did the

01:58government, ACT government did the survey of this area back in 2009 it's

02:02it's called the bent tree in that in that document. So look I've put out a

02:07call in the Ainslie community for the people with their stories and visions or

02:12views or pictures and things on the tree and ask them is that what you call it?

02:16because that's what we call it. We've always called it the leaning tree.

02:24Absolutely and that's why it's a registered tree because it has that

02:27community significance because this park Ainslie it just has that I don't have

02:34words for it. It's just part of the community.

02:42We've always called it the existing, we've always called it the

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