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Chainsaws, cash hidden in a shoe and trailer-loads of trees and vegetation hauled to a waste facility have culminated in the conviction of a gardener involved in one of Sydney’s most prominent cases of illegal tree-clearing.
Yi Wang, director of Sydney Garden Home, pleaded guilty in the NSW Land and Environment Court to three offences under the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act following an investigation into the unlawful removal of 287 trees from protected foreshore bushland at Woodford Bay Reserve in Longueville in November 2023.
The clearing of about 1210 square metres of public land and sparked widespread outrage. Then Lane Cove mayor Scott Bennison described it as the worst act of environmental vandalism in the area’s history.
The court heard Wang was engaged by Yao Wu, the stepdaughter of the owner of a waterfront property on Lucretia Avenue, to carry out gardening work adjacent to the home.
When Wu asked for trees surrounding the property to be removed, Wang enlisted a chainsaw operator and recruited up to four casual labourers a day to clear the steep slope leading down to Woodford Bay.
Over 12 days, the crew removed 287 mature trees from council-owned bushland, a public road reserve and protected foreshore land.
Throughout the operation, Wang sent progress updates and photographs to Wu via WeChat. The court heard workers were paid in cash, with money frequently left hidden in a shoe at the front of the property for Wang to collect and distribute to the labourers.
The operation was uncovered through a Lane Cove Council investigation that used CCTV footage, tip-offs from nearby residents, and waste disposal records showing trailer-loads of branches and foliage taken to a waste facility in Ryde.
The court heard that the clearing destroyed native canopy that had existed on the site since at least 1943, resulted in the clearing of part of an estuarine swamp oak endangered ecological community and damaged bushland that may take up to 30 years to fully regenerate.
The affected area included coastal sandstone foreshores forest and habitat used by native wildlife, including microbats and the threatened Powerful Owl.
Wang, who had worked as a gardener for about five years, argued he had not acted recklessly and that his conduct was, at worst, “negligent”.
However, Land and Environment Court Justice Rachel Pepper rejected suggestions that Wang was merely following Wu’s instructions, finding he played an active role in organising labour, coordinating the works and facilitating the removal of vegetation.
Justice Pepper found Wang failed to make the inquiries that a reasonable contractor experienced in vegetation removal would have made before undertaking the work and described the environmental harm caused by the offences as “substantial”.
In sentencing, Justice Pepper took into account Wang’s early guilty pleas, cooperation with investigators, lack of prior convictions and genuine remorse.
Wang was fined $187,500 and ordered to pay Lane Cove Council’s legal costs.
In a statement, the council welcomed the judgment, saying strong penalties were necessary to deter future acts of tree vandalism.
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David Barwell is an urban affairs reporter for The Sydney Morning HeraldConnect via email.From our partners
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