Australia Weather News

South Australians are being warned to take care near trees after a branch fell and injured two people during the WOMADelaide festival on Monday evening.

In a statement, festival organisers confirmed two people were injured when a branch fell, one of whom was taken to hospital after St Johns volunteers attended to them.

They said said the injuries were "not serious".

"Precautions have now been taken in the park," the statement read.

The Botanic Gardens and State Herbarium, which is responsible for Botanic Park, extended its "sincere sympathy" to the people affected by the branch fall.

A spokesperson said a professional arborist was engaged "to undertake specific tree risk assessment inspections in Botanic Park", along with their own regular inspections prior to the event.

"We then immediately action any recommended remediation tree works," the spokesperson said.

"We are highly conscious of the need for active tree management, including tree risk assessment inspections and actioning of any works identified. 

"We are also aware that, in some circumstances, trees can present as low risk and yet still suffer a major failure.

"This can be due to unusual climatic conditions, lighting strikes, storms, or potential weaknesses inside the tree that are not observable until the failure occurs.

"The likelihood of the impact of tree failure is reduced by undertaking tree risk inspections."

Premier Peter Malinauskas said the branch fall was "an awful, tragic accident" and his thoughts were with the people who were injured.

But, he cautioned against any knee-jerk reactions to the incident.

"We know that the Botanic Gardens is very vigilant in making sure that tree inspections are conducted prior to events like this and that risk management is put in place," he said.

"But you can't account for acts like this, random events … despite all that risk mitigation you can't eliminate all risk.

"It's a tragic incident, it's important that we don't overreact to it."

'Be particularly vigilant'

SA SES chief officer Chris Beattie said trees became stressed "during periods of extreme heat", and the volunteers responded to thousands of tree incidents each year.

"The majority of those are associated with extreme weather and high wind events, however, during very hot periods we do know that trees get stressed and so during heatwave events and warm summer months we ask people to be particularly vigilant and be mindful of large trees that might pose a risk," he said.

He said the recent summer period was "one of the hottest summers on record".

"If we look at the mean temperatures, the mean daily temperatures for summer, it's the second hottest on record," he said.

"If we look at the maximum daily temperatures it is the hottest summer on record, and we couple that with the hottest sea surface temperatures around Australia since measurements began in 1900.

"We really have a lot of heat in the environment and with that comes stress on the natural ecosystem and trees in particular."

He urged people to be mindful around trees, because "limbs can fall without notice".

"It's nice to rest in the shade under a tree but please we ask people to be cautious about where they park their cars and if they're looking for shade, pick a tree that doesn't have large limbs that might pose a danger," he said.

"It's important that people are mindful of their environment and avoid sitting, picnicking, camping underneath trees that might pose a danger."

Adelaide City Council Lord Mayor Jane Lomax-Smith said the council had also had trees assessed in Rundle Park and Rymill Park, where the Garden of Unearthly Delights and Gluttony were held, prior to the Adelaide Fringe.

"We have trained horticulturalists that go out regularly and we particularly take note when there is going to be a major event so that we check all the trees all the time," she told ABC Radio Adelaide.

She said external advisors also assessed trees prior to major events.

“What they do is, as I understand it, they look for diseases, they look for the state of the tree and they advise on which limbs should be pruned.

"Although we love our trees we never hold back, if they ever need pruning, however brutal, we have to do it."