'Chainsaws tearing through my heart': 50 arrested as sacred tree cut down to make way for Victorian highway

Legal observers among those arrested as Indigenous Australians express outrage after Djab Wurrung directions tree felled

The Victorian government has cut down a tree that was culturally significant to Australia's Indigenous Djab Wurrung women to make way for a highway in the state's west.

The yellow box, known as a directions tree, was felled on Monday. The government has defended its actions, saying the tree was not one of those listed as requiring protection in an agreement with the Eastern Maar Aboriginal Corporation, and was not the sacred directions tree that is now subject to a federal court action.