Once planted en masse all around NSW, the Queen Palm (Syagrus romanzoffiana) has become one of the most unpopular palms around. My local Council does not require any permit on behalf of residents to remove them, unlike most trees. Councils, Gardening magazines and shows, and just about everyone else now loves to hate these palms. They have been blamed for everything from attracting roaches and vermin, invading bushland, the Indian Mynah invasion of Sydney, gloabal warming, and just about any other problem you can think of. Below are pictures of the fate of these palms nowadays that I happened to see:

(dumped faster than a one night stand)

(Soon to be removed)

While the palms are not self cleansing and may be establishing themselves in some places in South-East Queensland, I believe many of the problems attributed to the palms are greatly exaggerated. It seems Aussies are so quick to jump on the bandwagon when it comes to plants without really examining the claims.

Agree 2000000% . Councils are opting to pay a once-off fee to cut down the trees, rather than the more sensible (but more expensive long-term) option of removing the fruit each year before it ripens. Maybe it's a different situation in Queensland (shrug) - dunno.

The things that councils (and others) are blaming the Queen palm for - border on absurd. But seeing that Australian councils are involved here, that doesn't surprise me one little bit. I wish councils would concentrate on graffiti removal, footpath (sidewalk)/road maintenance and rubbish removal.

Regards

Michael.

Yes unfortunately they are being demonized everywhere......I would have to admit that I would be glad if there were none growing in this area but we are fortunate here to be able to grow just about any other palm we want to......down south it is a different matter and removal of Queen Palms in the southern states just takes away another option apart from the usual suspects that will grow in cooler climates.