Following a partial failure of the tree on the morning of Saturday, 8 March 2025, the remaining structure was assessed as unsalvageable and subsequently removed (pers. comm., H. Ballinger, email, 3 April 2025).

'The Marlborough Campus of the Nelson Polytechnic stands on land formerly owned by Ralph and Pat Ballinger, who planted the Ginkgo and many other notable species over the past 50 years. The new additions to the Campus have been designed and built to allow the trees to remain. The Ginkgo enhances the entrance to the new additions'. Elwood-Smith 1994.

The odd form of the tree came as a result of a mishap involving some cultivation machinery. The Ballinger's operated a market garden on the land between 1949 and 1990. When the tree was very young, its top was inadvertently cut off when a tractor-operated rotary hoe turned around it (pers. comm. Helen Ballinger, 2021).