21-05-2025
Locals fume as 22-year-old roundabout garden destroyed by council: 'A complete stuff-up'
Flowers planted and lovingly tended to for over two decades by a local resident have been destroyed by workers contracted by the local council, with a whipper snipper turning the once blossoming roundabout into a pile of dirt.
Geoff Miers, 75, was devastated to learn the hundreds of Sturt's desert peas were ripped out from the roundabout on the intersection of Undoolya Road and Lindsay Avenue in Alice Springs last Monday — one day after spending more than four hours tending to them with his wife Kaye.
"I was stunned. I couldn't believe it, especially as we had been tending to the roundabout the day before," he told Yahoo News. "I've been looking after the roundabout for over 22 years when I first planted it out with a group of horticultural students from Charles Darwin University."
Geoff, who is a horticulturalist himself, explained he wants to do his bit to "keep Alice looking good" and this was the reason behind his committed effort to the roundabout, which had long been renowned in the town.
Yahoo News understand the contractors had mistaken the native flowers, not yet in bloom, for weeds and ripped them up.
"Simply it boils down to a lack of adequate training and a lack of direct and clear supervision," Geoff said. "The roundabout garden was designed to be self-sustaining with weeding and the occasional watering to keep it looking wonderful."
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The council has been slammed after word spread around town of the incident. The editor of local news outlet Alice Springs News published a scathing letter penned by a resident calling for an investigation.
"The Town Council needs a rigorous, independent review to restore democratic representation, transparency and sanity," it reads. "The council's wanton destruction of the iconic Undoolya Road and Lindsay Avenue roundabout planted with Sturt Desert Peas is final proof, if more was needed, that it lacks all three."
Joshua Burgoyne, a local member of the legislative assembly, also questioned the council's actions online saying, "We need to be encouraging locals to care for their spaces. Not destroying them by taking the whipper snipper to them." Geoff had recently propagated the Sturt's desert peas and planted them on a second roundabout outside Joshua's office.
"I want to thank him for his ongoing work ensuring Alice Springs looks it's best," Joshua said.
Yahoo News reached out to the Alice Springs Town Council, however, it declined to comment. It is understood the council offered Geoff compensation, however Geoff told Yahoo News he wasn't interested in compensation and he doesn't know how much the council were willing to offer.
"[I] didn't want to know about it so we never got that far [with a dollar amount]," he told Yahoo News. "They are full of apologies and realise it was a complete stuff-up. It will be discussed at the next full council meeting next Tuesday, 27th May."
Geoff is adamant he will replant the flowers once the water supply is restored on the roundabout — something that was removed several years ago without explanation by council.
"It will come back again when I get some water put on, even if I have to treat and direct seed the roundabout," he said.
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