Save Mel and Leuca!

MEDIA RELEASE

COMMUNITY GUTTED AS COUNCIL REJECTS PROTECTION FOR DARCY DOYLE TREES

31 August 2026

The Ipswich community is devastated by Ipswich City Council’s rejection of the Ipswich Community Action Group’s (ICAG) application for a Vegetation Protection Order (VPO) to protect the significant trees at Darcy Doyle Park.

Council says the application cannot be processed because the trees are part of a “current design process” that began before the VPO application. Council appears to be treating this design process as the “risk” or “threat” referred to in its vegetation protection policy.

ICAG believes this reasoning is flimsy and difficult to reconcile with Council’s own published policy.

Council’s website says significant trees should receive “due and prior attention” before a risk or threat emerges. It does not clearly say that a design process prevents a VPO application from being considered.

So the question is simple: how can the community protect significant trees if a Council design process can be used to stop them being considered for protection?

ICAG submitted its application in September 2025 and waited almost a year for Council’s response.

These mature trees provide shade, habitat, amenity and character to Ipswich. Once they are gone, they are gone.

ICAG will continue to stand with the community and demand transparency, accountability and genuine protection for the Darcy Doyle trees.

This fight is not over.

Ipswich Climate Action Group (ICAG)