Tradie's colossal five-metre find in backyard prompts warning: 'Blows out costs'
Footage of the removal shows plumber Elliot Aisthorpe, from Big Country Earthworks, using an excavator to haul the small plant and its surprisingly extensive root network out of the tank on the Gold Coast property this week.
The shocking five-metre-long discovery is a "great example of why you should never plant trees with invasive roots near your home", he said.
Plumber Trent Piribauer told Yahoo News it's likely the roots had been growing for over a decade, and despite the tank no longer being in use, the damage they cause can be costly if left untouched.
"Once you start to suspect any issues, get them looked at sooner rather than later because once roots start to become a certain size, you unfortunately just have to dig it up," Trent warned. "You can't rely on maintenance machinery after a certain point.
"And when you dig it up, it blows out costs massively."
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While there is great merit in growing trees in your backyard, taking the species and location of the plant into consideration is vital if residents want to avoid costly construction work in the future.
"Don't plant anything root-dense and thirsty along plumbing lines...I recommend just not planting anything along the side of a house," Trent said.
As tree roots are naturally drawn to water, with even the smallest crack in a drainage pipe being enough to attract them, it's best to minimise the chances of plumbing being disturbed by simply keeping trees as far away as possible.
Old-fashioned water tanks, like the one on the Gold Coast property, are slowly becoming obsolete on residential properties. However, anything that holds water can be targeted by roots due to their "magical way of finding moisture".
"From a perspective of being able to avoid this as a homeowner, anytime you are updating your plumbing...it makes sense to have a concrete tank like this pulled down at the same time," Trent told Yahoo.
"When it becomes dilapidated like this the tree is like 's**t, look at all the nutrients. I'm coming in here, baby'."
Several Aussies have learned this the hard way, with a plumber on the NSW Central Coast recently discovering the "largest [root] he's ever seen" in his 20-year career.
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'I love men in their 40s, what can I say?': Women on the appeal (and red flags) of age-gap relationships
Dating someone decades older is controversial. Some are up to the challenge. Olive is taking a break from dating for the first time in her adult life. The 29-year-old went through a breakup a few months ago and needs some time to regroup. 'We dated for eight months and it was a fun mess,' Olive — who, along with other women interviewed by Yahoo, asked not to share her last name for privacy reasons — says of her last relationship. The former couple first matched on Tinder 10 years ago, when she was 19, but didn't begin dating until they bumped into each other last summer. Olive's ex is 12 years older than her — but he's also the youngest man she's ever dated. The idea of dating someone older, particularly when it comes to younger women dating older men, has long been contentious. 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