C&R Ryder Consulting

VCAT, the Magistrates Court, the Coroners Court and planning panels have all had our evidence put in front of them. Investigative and forensic arboriculture and expert witness work is what we specialise in at C&R Ryder Consulting, whether the question is suspected building damage from tree roots or a tree failure that has caused damage or injury, and we will take an assessment as far as sampling where the case calls for it.

Cameron Ryder has been in arboriculture since 2002. He came through the University of Melbourne at Burnley College with an Advanced Diploma in Horticulture (Arboriculture) and a Bachelor of Horticulture with First Class Honours, worked as a climbing arborist until an injury ended that early, and has been consulting since 2004. He has assessed many hundreds of thousands of trees for local, state and federal government, developers, lawyers and architects, and he started this practice in 2014. He sits on the Institutional and Management Committee of Treenet, and is a Registered Consulting Arborist with Arboriculture Australia, a member of the International Society of Arboriculture and a member of the Victorian Tree Industry Organisation.

Raelene Ryder runs project and business administration and prepares the documentation. She has 13 years in the biological science industry behind her, a Bachelor of Biological Science from Deakin University, and time spent in chemical, environmental, water and algal testing laboratories.

For development work we write arborist reports for council submission in accordance with AS4970-2009 Protection of Trees on Development Sites, and we can supply the tree protection specifications in AutoCAD or another format if that saves time on your drawings. Arboriculture and town planning advice draws on the planning schemes, local laws and tree related overlays, and local government comes to us on development, tree retention and removal. We also handle project supervision, oversight and certification, which covers regular site audits, tree protection installation, and the certification and documentation councils ask for, and we supervise excavation and root pruning near trees of significance where a permit makes that a condition.

General health, condition and risk assessments are for when you are worried about a tree and want practical advice on managing it, and pest and disease identification works out what is actually wrong before anything gets treated. Tree surveying runs from 10 trees to 10,000, using GIS and GPS to place them with accuracy from a metre down to 10 centimetres, with photographs as part of the survey where that helps. Species identification and selection is the other end of it, and it matters when you are deciding what goes back in.

Post bushfire and natural disaster recovery assessments come with their own pressures. After a fire or a severe storm the first concern is usually getting roads open, and we have run many of these with systems in place so the process can be audited and no tree is missed. We work across Victoria, on Victorian planning schemes, local laws and overlays, and we cover assessment and reporting for trees in the broader landscape. Ring 0434 351 567 and tell us what you are dealing with.