Oh Tree, your days are numbered

This gum tree outside our house has to come down. We hate the idea of cutting down a tree. But this one has been declared unsafe. From time to time a branch falls on our roof or in our garden. If When the tree falls it has a choice of two houses on which to inflict heavy damage. One is ours. Those don’t seem like great odds.
 
When we first moved in, a family of possums lived in the tree. We used to look forward to their nightly aerobatic descent as they set out at dusk for food gathering and other adventures. The possums moved out when one of the large branches fell, and their tree cavity was taken over by galahs.
 
It’s not easy to remove a tree (nor should it be). The first step was the arborist’s report. He says the tree is ‘overmature’, a concept we can relate to. He also says it has sustained major damage to its trunk and branches, It suffers from decay and 'overlong branches' and it is host to ‘a fruiting body of Phellinus fungus’. It also has a lean to the west which explains why it always looks crooked in photos.
 
Armed with the arborist’s report, we applied to Council for a ‘Vegetation Clearing Permit’. This step required postgraduate qualifications in official form filling and cost $100. That was five weeks ago and we await the outcome.
 
Since we put in the application, there have been several very windy days, and we have watched the tree with trepidation. How ironic if it falls on the house while we are still waiting for the final approval. So far so good. But we feel guilty every time we look at the tree.