Arboriculture Victoria

You are most likely reading this because a council has asked you for something. A planning permit application, trees sitting near proposed construction, or neighbouring and street trees your build might affect: any one of those and an assessment gets required to determine tree retention, impacts and protection measures. That is the work we do. Arboriculture Victoria is a consulting practice based at Northcote, covering metropolitan and suburban Melbourne and regional Victoria, taking in Brunswick, Fitzroy, Carlton, Richmond, Footscray and Yarraville, and every report is tailored to the council it is going to, because each area has its own requirements.

Arborist reports for planning permits and development set out the trees on and around a site, their health and structure and what is worth retaining, in the form a planning authority expects to read it in. An arboricultural impact assessment goes further, spelling out how the proposed development will affect the existing trees, what can be kept, and what has to change in the design or the tree protection zones in order to keep it. Ours follow AS 4970 Protection of Trees on Development Sites and are written to meet council requirements, which is often what separates a permit approved from one sent back for more work.

For the trees already standing on a site, our tree health and risk assessment reports give an owner or a manager a clear read on the condition of a tree and the risk it carries, so a decision about retaining it, doing remedial work or removing it rests on evidence. Urban tree care and management is the longer view: soil health, species selection and long term sustainability for owners of larger properties, estates, schools and public land who have to plan their tree stock across years and budget for it.

On an active build, project arborist services put a qualified arborist alongside the works to oversee tree protection as construction proceeds, with site inspections at the stages that actually matter. A tree protection management plan sets out the fencing, the critical root zones, the ground protection and the site rules that keep a retained tree alive while the machines are there. Between the first planning report and the last inspection, that is the whole span of it. Tyson McCaig is an AQF Level 5 arborist with experience working with Melbourne councils, and the recommendations you get back are practical and permit focused. Ring 0437 475 763, tell us what the council has asked for, and you will get a report written to answer it.