Warrnambool council’s $5m worker accommodation will go ahead, but 100-year-old trees worth $600k are staying

A five to two vote will see the project work around the six Norfolk Pines that were originally slated to be removed.

Zara Cuthbertson
May 07, 2026

Four 100-year-old Norfolk Island pines that had been marked for the chainsaw will instead anchor Warrnambool’s new key worker housing precinct, after a month of community pressure forced councillors back to the drawing board.

What happened: Warrnambool City Council voted five to two on Monday night to approve a $5 million, state-funded housing project at 46 Pertobe Road, but only after adopting an alternate motion requiring all six mature pines on the site to be retained.

The decision overturns the original recommendation, which would have allowed four of the trees, valued at more than $600,000, to be removed to make way for up to 15 cabins delivering at least 34 beds for key workers.

After five years, the cabins could transition to short-stay accommodation.

Speaking for the trees: Councillor Willy Benter put forward the alternate motion, arguing the trees should be preserved and the project redesigned around them.

“If we cut down the trees, it goes against all our policies of greening Warrnambool, tree planting, protecting the environment, canopy cover and more, it just can't happen,” he said.

“I believe we can achieve an acceptable outcome that can be balanced by reducing some of the cabin numbers by repositioning, and that we can actually keep the trees in that development.”

Councillor Vicki Jellie said removing the trees would be a “devastating loss for our city”.

“Desecrate these trees and they are gone forever,” she said.

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“It’s really sought after. A home last week had 16 offers - only three were local. The rest were out-of-town buying the site unseen”.

More money, more problems: Councillor Matt Walsh opposed the alternate motion, saying he had not yet seen fully developed construction plans demonstrating how the cabins could be built around the trees.

“If anyone in this room thinks there's not going to be additional costs, they're kidding themselves. There'll be additional maintenance, which I'm sure everybody is aware of,” he said.

Now what? The motion passed with Councillors Ziegler, Jellie, Arnott, Edis and Benter in favour, and Councillors Walsh and Blaine opposed.

Questions remain over the projected new costs, whether cabin numbers will change, and whether the state government has signed off on an altered configuration.