Yesterday the 13 tonnes large mahogany tree stump was removed from Pavonia Place, Nightcliff, to make room for shade sails for the children's playground and the very popular Nightcliff Sunday markets.

Background on the tree: We don’t take the decision to remove trees lightly. In fact, we’re all about planting trees. We’ve planted almost 15,000 since Cyclone Marcus in March 2018. But when we got reports from Nightcliff businesses there had been ‘cracking’ noises from this African mahogany, we had to act. This was a tree overhanging a children’s playground. And, there is a history of tragedy associated with mahoganies in Darwin. Several inspections including by an independent arborist found the tree posed an unacceptable hazard. So, sadly it had to come down.

The new shade structure is part City of Darwin's $5 million Better Suburbs program. For more information on our Better Suburbs projects, visit:

https://www.darwin.nt.gov.au/projects/nightcliff-shopping-village-playground-shade-structure