TRC’s  parks and horticulture acting manager, Hugh Leckie, said the council was investigating incidents along the length of Queen St in the past few weeks. 

“Council is working with Queen St businesses, to gain access to closed-circuit television footage, and also Oxley Local Area Command to find those responsible,” Mr Leckie said.

“The tall avenue of trees is a major feature of the streetscape and this is a large-scale incident regarded as a criminal act.”

Mr Leckie said the council had sought advice from several experts and was doing all it could to bring the London plane trees back to health.

He said the suspected poisoning came to light last week when council staff noticed limp and curled leaves on the branches of a number of the trees, which stand 6 to 10 metres high.

“The initial inspection revealed 21 trees were affected, but earlier this week another seven were looking sick,” Mr  Leckie said.

“It is quite clear some sort of poison has been applied to the trees and we have sent samples for analysis to determine the specific type of chemical used, but the results will not be finalised until next week.”

Mr Leckie said the council was hopeful the affected trees would recover.

“Members of the Barraba community have shown council how much the trees mean to them and have fought to protect them – surely someone saw something suspicious going on in Queen St and we urge them to come forward,” he said.

“If the poisoned trees die, the cost to council and the community to replace them will be significant.”

Anyone with information is asked to call council on 6767 5555 or Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.