Signs on the base of the tree still said "Save this tree" while police monitored the crowd and helped traffic through. Furious locals said the tree didn’t have to be cut down and claimed no wildlife study had been done. “Why don’t you stop your car and block it?” a protester shouted as a driver went past the machinery. Residents in the building watched from their balconies as the tree, planted in 1996, was removed. Central ward councillor Vicki Howard arrived just after 10am to speak but many distressed residents had left after accepting they could not do any more to stop the felling.

Cr Howard said a "poor decision" by the council in 1990s had seen the fig, and two others beside it, planted on the footpath rather than beside it, meaning one particular tree was too close to infrastructure. Two contractors in a cherry-picker were cutting branch by branch to help move the pieces into the mulching truck. Credit:Fairfax Media The other two figs were monitored regularly and were not interfering with infrastructure to such a degree, Cr Howard said. She said the council had worked for more than a decade to save the tree and protect the private property behind it, but it had eventually been established the root system was interfering with sewerage and internal infrastructure for the apartment block. "We've worked with body corporates, we've worked with residents, and it's just something that unfortunately we can't do anything more about," she said.

A protester asked Cr Howard that if the rationale for felling the tree was the damage its roots were doing to an apartment block, what would stop other trees alongside it being felled. Local Alice Ilies said council had not consulted the community before taking a chainsaw to the “iconic tree”. “The council has decided to chop down one of the iconic trees along Vernon Terrace in Teneriffe because of some recently installed stairs that they claim the tree is interfering with,” Ms Ilies said. “The tree is a very old, massive Moreton Bay fig tree that stretches across the street and provides shade and a beautiful aspect for the whole area. “There are several more of the same trees along Vernon Terrace-Macquarie Street and locals fear they are next. This was done with no consultation with the local community and council didn't post a sign up,” she said.