Carter's Tree Services

An arborist writing a report for us holds AQF Level 5 as a minimum, and anyone practising in a tree holds at least AQF Level 3. Behind those there are Diplomas in Natural Resource Management and Certificates II and III in Conservation and Land Management, and the whole team keeps training so nothing on the truck is being done the way it was done a decade ago. That is the standard Carter's Tree Services was built on, and it is why councils and utilities are comfortable handing us work that has to stand up to an audit.

Tim Carter started the business more than eleven years ago on the back of fifteen years in tree and vegetation management, and it has grown into a network of depots spread across three states. Head office is at Warrnambool, with depots reaching Ballarat, Ararat, Edenhope, Mildura, Echuca and Kyabram, and across the border to Naracoorte and Mount Gambier. That footprint takes in Victoria, eastern South Australia and southern New South Wales. Sean Barnes manages the operation and is a Diploma certified arborist with more than ten years in the industry, so the person running your job has spent ten years up the tree.

Take the powerline work as an example of how we operate at that scale. It does not begin with a saw, it begins with inspection and auditing: we walk the line, build a tree inventory, and set a cyclic pruning schedule so the same spans are back on the list before the clearance closes up again, instead of being dealt with once a limb is already in the conductors. The mechanical side is matched to the country. A tractor mounted saw attachment handles kilometres of roadside where a crew on foot would take a season, and a skid steer mulcher gets into terrain that a truck cannot follow, which is what makes slashing, land clearing and bushfire mitigation practical across a region this size. Traffic management on the road jobs comes through our sister company, Toot Traffic, so the whole site is coordinated by one group.

The domestic side of the ledger runs on the same equipment and the same certificates. Tree removal on a house block, where the tree is over the roof, the fence or the neighbour's shed, means dismantling and lowering it in sections, and the trucks we run have the lifting capacity to take the weight off the climber. Where a tree is staying, tree trimming keeps it clear of roofs, lines and driveways, and stump grinding finishes off the ones that go, below ground, so the spot can be levelled, turfed or built on. We also write arboricultural reports and consultancy for planning and development, prepare tree management plans and impact assessments, and take on emergency response and insurance work when a storm has already made the decision for you.

If you have the operators but not the machine, our dry hire fleet includes a Kobelco excavator and a Bobcat skid steer. And if you have the tree but no idea what it needs, that is what we would rather you ring about. No job is too big or too small, quotes are free and detailed, and you can reach us on 0499 378 466 or 0407 036 407.