The King family are fighting the planned destruction of their beloved treehouse and the conversion of the land it sits on into an office building.

Government body and energy provider Energex is proposing to build a three-story office block on the land behind the King’s home.

The lot has been vacant for the 20 years the family have lived at their Greenslopes home, south-east of Brisbane’s CBD.

Overrun with weeds they took it upon themselves to maintain the land and after a near-death experience a few years ago, dad Stephen decided to come good on his promise of a treehouse.

But earlier this year, Energex told the family they can’t have the treehouse there because of “safety concerns”.

Stephen tells Chris Smith “at almost exactly the same time, they put the development applications into council”.

“They didn’t tell us anything about that.”

“What’s disappointing is that a government body really tried to fly this under the radar and give us very little time to actually realise what was going on.”

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Submissions to council to object to the proposed three-story office block closed at the end of June and Stephen’s wife Nicole rallied the community to push back.

Over 60 submissions were made to council.

“I have to give the council pat on a back they’ve been very fair about the whole thing.”

Council has since notified Energex the proposal is not supported, resulting in the government body requesting a break to reconsider.

“They’re acting like a developer instead of somebody whose wages are paid by us.”