St Kilda Kindergarten children Marcus Scott (5) and Javae Reynolds (4) perch near the hole left in place of the kindergarten’s anniversary Pohutukawa tree which was stolen, along with five other trees, during the summer holidays. Photo by James Boucher.
The kindergarten spent more than two years planning and fundraising to install a garden at its Victoria Rd premises, and finally achieved the goal in November last year.
After returning from the summer break, kindergarten staff were shocked to discover large holes where their newly planted native trees had been.
St Kilda Kindergarten head teacher Bev King said she was shocked someone would steal from the children's garden.
‘‘This kindergarten is not very financially viable,'' Mrs King said. ‘‘We were finally able to raise the money needed to get this garden established and when we returned from the Christmas break we discovered six of the nicer, more expensive trees had been stolen.
‘‘We were devastated really, and the children were absolutely shocked - they had worked so hard on planting the garden and they all had a hand in it.''
Mrs King said establishing the garden in the kindergarten's exposed site took a lot of planning and work.
‘‘The garden was planned around a pohutukawa tree which we planted last year to celebrate the kindergarten's 50th anniversary.
‘‘They dug that pohutukawa out and some other trees which were donated to the kindergarten by children when they turned five years old. It's shameful really, stealing from children like this.''
Some small trees and other plants still remained in the garden and it was hoped these would not be uplifted as well, Mrs King said. She did not believe the trees were stolen as an act of vandalism.
‘‘The trees were taken to be replanted. ‘‘They were taken very carefully and they were all nice, expensive trees. Whoever took them was very selective with which ones they grabbed. It's not been a good start to the year.''
The incident was reported to the police but there was not much they could do about it, Mrs King said.
‘‘We know they [the plants] went missing during the last week of the Christmas holidays but that's it.''
Despite the setback the kindergarten would continue to develop the garden, she said.
