Brett B sent me an email at Christmas with a link to an item in Atlas Obscura, a site that presents interesting items about places around the world. Brett’s link is to an item about the Australian town of Lismore, which is located very close to the Queensland border. This is a pic of the main street, Molesworth Street:
Christmas has passed but the article is still of interest. This is the link:
Thanks, Brett.
The following text and photographs are from that article . . .
The Australian Town That Turns Trash Into Christmas Trees
Vivienne Pearson, December 23 2020
The traditional public Christmas tree in Lismore, the largest town in the northeast of Australia’s New South Wales, used to be pretty ho-ho-hum. Before 2015, a Cook pine in the middle of a roundabout was dressed up each holiday season as a tannenbaum. But, like all Cook pines, the tree leans toward the equator, so the effect of decorating it was underwhelming. “Everyone said ‘Oh, that’s a bit sad, it can’t even stand straight,’” says Neil Marks, acting mayor of Lismore City Council.
The Cook pine tree, cheery but crooked.
Lismore is an inland town sometimes seen as the less-dazzling cousin of celebrity-filled Byron Bay. However, it has a vibrant culture centered on art and environmental awareness. So it was fitting when a member of the town’s council staff came up with the idea of a recycled Christmas tree, to be situated on an otherwise unadorned roundabout down the street from the Cook pine tree (which also still gets the festive treatment).
The first tree—built under the cover of night out of a pile of bicycles—debuted in 2015 and ushered in a new tradition. In subsequent years, the tree has been made from used tires, old road signs, broken umbrellas, and potted plants combined with solar-powered lighting. Materials are sourced from the town’s junkyard, and various town staff take on design and construction.
The 2015 bicycle tree—the one that started it all.
Like most things in this unusual year, the 2020 tree was a little different. It was a group effort, since most staff worked from home due to COVID-19 restrictions. And the tree is an ode to resilience. “This year’s tree is a nod and a tribute to our rural community,” says Marks, who spoke to Atlas Obscura while he waited to see whether flood waters in town would recede and allow him to travel back to his workplace. “They’ve had a tough time. They’ve gone through fires, a drought, and now a little too much rain.” Local farmers have also suffered from indirect effects of COVID-19, including border closures, despite Lismore being one of the many regions of Australia that has had no active cases of the virus.
This year’s 23-foot tree is made from recycled 6.5-gallon drums that store chemicals for use on farms. The decorations are made from used animal feed bags, piping, and discarded metal.
The 2020 tree is made from farm castoffs.
Many in the community love the scrappy, garbage-inspired trees. “I’m very much in the ‘bah-humbug’ community but, despite my general pessimism, I have grown fond of our tree,” says Lismore resident Gray Wilson. Another fan is Jodi Adams, who took a keen interest in the trees after moving to Lismore from Sydney in 2018. An ex-journalist and longtime environmental activist, she can’t believe that more public groups aren’t following the trend, “especially those [in] areas that wear their green credentials proudly,” she says. “I send photos of them to friends in Australia and abroad and they are amazed it is not done elsewhere.”
In 2019, the tree was comprised of a bunch of tiny plants.
One year, the whole thing was made of umbrellas.
Adams has an elaborate vision for a tree-filled future, recreating each past tree every year in addition to adding a new one. “Wouldn’t it be amazing to have one on each street corner?” she says. For (Acting Mayor) Marks, one per year is enough. And this year, it’s very welcome. “It’s something different to make you smile,” he says. “After 2020, we need to smile as much as we can.”
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