Entertainment
12 July, 2026
Ode to pulverised raintree
A PHOTOGRAPHIC exhibition documenting the campaign to save the Freshwater raintree will open in Stratford next week, showcasing the community effort to protect one of Cairns’ best-known landmarks.
‘Loved and Lost – The Freshwater Raintree – In Pictures’ opens on 16 July at Narrow Tracks Distillery and features work by photographers Kerry Trapnell, Brian Cassey and Jon Westaway. The exhibition documents the 10-month campaign to save the Freshwater Raintree, which was removed just weeks ago following widespread community protests.
The exhibition captures the public response to the loss of the tree, described as the “heart of Freshwater” and explores the broader issue of protecting mature trees and urban canopy across Cairns.
Documentary photographer Kerry Trapnell said the campaign revealed an extraordinary sense of community.
“As a documentary photographer, I have spent decades photographing people living in remote locations. Closer to home, life seems more familiar, and sometimes more ordinary, but I witnessed something extraordinary when members of the Freshwater community rallied, advocated, planned and protested to protect their lifelong companion and suburban sentinel, the monumental, majestic Freshwater raintree,” he said.
Mr Trapnell said he hoped the photographs would preserve the story of the campaign. “In photographing the campaign to save the Freshwater raintree, I wanted my images to capture and share the passion and commitment of this community’s efforts to protect this much-loved local treasure,” he said.
“I hope these images speak to the wider issues of the need to better manage and protect our local environment and amplify the voices of those working hard to make it happen.”
Photojournalist Brian Cassey said the project was especially personal because he had lived just metres from the tree for almost 30 years.
“My driveway is just 50m from the beautiful Freshwater raintree … and I’d walked or driven past that tree almost every day for nearly 30 years. It was ‘our tree’.”
He said documenting the campaign was “the least I could do” in the hope it would help prevent similar losses in the future.
TV gardening guru and environmental advocate Costa Georgiadis, who described the Freshwater raintree as a “cathedral of nature”, will officially open the exhibition on 16 July.
“The Freshwater raintree brought the community together. They observed, they were connected and they stepped up to protect, not just this one tree, but the importance of trees in a changing future for Cairns,” he said.
The exhibition coincides with ongoing discussion about protecting canopy cover across Cairns, with CAFNEC’s Tree Action Group advocating changes to Cairns Regional Council’s vegetation management code.
