About 330 trees are still destined to be cut down for Sydney's $2.1 billion light rail line to the eastern suburbs, prompting activists to step up their campaign against their removal.
Conservationists calculate that the construction of the light rail line from Sydney's CBD to Randwick and Kensington will affect about 850 trees. Almost half of those have been or will be cut down, while the remainder will be pruned.
So far, about 80 trees – half of which are figs – have been felled near the Eastern Distributor motorway, along Anzac Parade, and along Alison and Wansey roads near Randwick Racecourse.
Total Environment Centre executive director Jeff Angel said residents and conservationists would be stepping up their campaign to halt the felling of trees along the 12-kilometre light rail route, which would include a rally this Sunday.
"This is a devastating and unnecessary reduction in mature trees and canopy – that requires urgent review," he said.
The group based its calculations on the latest "tree report", which was conducted by arborists for Transport for NSW. An updated report is due for release within the next few weeks.
Contractors for the project's consortium, ALTRAC, will begin uprooting about 40 trees on Alison Road later this week. Many of the trees are between three and four metres tall, and will be replanted at a nursery while Randwick City Council decides where they should be permanently located.
Under the most recent plans, a further 20 fig trees are due to be chopped down.
Despite an outcry, the Baird government has stood firm in its decision to allow the trees to be removed for the new tram line, which will link Circular Quay to the eastern suburbs via Anzac Parade and includes stops near Moore Park and the racecourse.
A spokeswoman for Transport for NSW said the government was committed to reducing the number of trees that had been earmarked for removal in the original environmental impact statement.
"We want to save trees. It is unfortunately a necessity that trees have to go," she said.
About 20 to 30 trees at High Cross Park have been saved from chainsaws after it was decided late last year to move the terminus closer to Prince of Wales Hospital at Randwick.
The next major cull of trees has yet to be decided as it depends on the construction schedule.
The government has guaranteed that any tree removed will be replaced with at least two new trees, while it will replace those deemed significant with eight new ones.
However, Mr Angel described the guarantee as a "con" because "they simply cannot assure like for like, as the new trees won't be in the same place nor the same species or size potential".
Better Planning Network co-convener Jeanette Brokman said the government had been careful to obscure the scale of tree loss in its public statements.
Transport Minster Andrew Constance has said the reality of the project is that it cannot be done "without disrupting vegetation".
