Are six palms a hedge?

The palms' heads sit at different heights with clear gaps between them, so they never form a screen.

Rose Bay · 2022 · Lawyers & legal · Homes & estates

William Home, Consulting Arborist

The challenge

In 2022 a neighbour brought a tree dispute in the NSW Land and Environment Court, in a case that was widely reported. They claimed that four cabbage-tree palms and two Mexican fan palms around a waterfront pool formed a hedge that blocked their harbour views. We had planted the palms ourselves, at different heights, so they would never close up into a screen. The owner's lawyers briefed William Home as the expert arborist.

What we did

• Inspected the palms and measured their spacing: about 3–3.5 m between trunks, and at least 3 m between their heads.

• Arranged laboratory soil tests along the fence line and around the other palms in the pool area.

• Answered the lawyers' questions under the court's expert witness code of conduct. Is it a hedge? Can the palms be made shorter? How fast will they grow in salty harbour winds? Will their heads ever meet?

• Gave evidence that the palms were not planted as a hedge, and that their heads will never meet. A palm can't be made shorter without killing it. Only its dead fronds can be cleaned off. The cabbage-tree palms are unlikely to grow more than about 5 cm a year in that exposed spot.

• Gave evidence over the two-day hearing, which started on site and finished at the Land and Environment Court.

The result

The Court found the palms were not planted close enough together to form a hedge. The palms stayed.