Arbor Life Tree Services

The person who answers when you ring Arbor Life Tree Services is usually Hugh Sweeting, who served his apprenticeship at Hampton Court Palace in England and holds a Diploma in Arboriculture from Merrist Wood College. Before he settled in Toowoomba he worked for contractors and councils in London, France and around Australia, and in 1996 he started this business. More than 5,000 projects have come through it since, and Hugh still runs it himself, so the qualifications behind the advice are the same ones out on the job.

Good pruning is about a tree's long term health rather than a quick tidy up. We reduce and thin crowns, take out crossing and diseased branches, prune selectively and clear the deadwood, so wind and light move through the canopy again. People call us for all sorts of reasons: to make a tree safe and lower the risk to people and property, to bring more light into a house or garden, to keep leaves out of the gutters and the pool, to lift the look of a tree, or to encourage a better crop of fruit or flowers.

When a tree turns hazardous, or it was planted somewhere it was never going to sit well, it has to come out, and our felling work is where the awkward jobs come in: tight access, or a trunk growing straight over a house or a shed, the kind that needs proper planning before anyone starts cutting. We process the branches on site afterwards, and if you have us do the tree work you are welcome to keep the mulch from your own job at no extra cost. What is left in the ground we handle too, with a stump grinding machine that takes a stump down a full metre where that is needed.

Not every question about a tree needs a chainsaw. Our consultancy covers reports on tree health, on the impact or potential impact of trees on buildings, protection strategies for trees on building sites, and proactive pruning programs that stay on top of a tree over the years. We carry out this work for Local Councils, the Queensland Government and National Parks as well as homeowners right across the district, with the qualifications standing behind every report.

Storm season keeps us busy across the region. When a front comes through and leaves trees uprooted, split or shedding large limbs, we are the crew that turns up to sort out the mess. One job over an Australia Day weekend was a Bhutan cypress, 22 metres tall and close to a metre through the trunk, blown over and left balanced on a house, and that is the kind of work the planning and the gear are there for.

We work throughout Toowoomba, across the Darling Downs and the surrounding areas, for homes, businesses and public land alike. Our hours are Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm, and we are closed on weekends. If you have a tree you are unsure about, give us a call and Hugh will come out and have a look at it.