Hive Tree Services

Ring the office and the first thing you get is not a price. Our admin team books a time that suits both you and someone from our production team, we come out and inspect the work, take the pictures we need and make notes on what the job actually requires, and then we go away and write it up properly. The job report is emailed to you to consider in your own time, and only once you have given us your feedback on the scope and you are happy to proceed does anything go into the calendar. You are welcome to be there for the inspection if you would rather talk it through on the spot, and just as welcome to leave us to it.

That report runs a good deal longer than a quote. Most of them take in a description of the tree work requested, before photos and a site map of your property, the site inspection findings, a project plan covering the crew and equipment required, the scope of works, a risk management outline, any permits required and our terms and conditions, with the pricing schedule attached separately. The photos are the part clients come back to, because you can see which branches we are proposing to take off, what height the hedge will finish at and what shape the tree will have once we are done. People forward that report to a spouse, a tenant, a landlord or a neighbour, and some take it to their council to support an application, which is why we also keep a council permit resource hub running on our site.

Jobs take us right across Melbourne, from Bayside and Caulfield through Fitzroy North and Mitcham, and out to Kallista in the Dandenongs. Our tree removal work is the cutting of dead, defective, dangerous, weedy or unwanted trees to ground level, taken down in sections by a climber or worked from the elevated work platform when the access calls for it. Where a tree has a weak union we would sooner keep standing, tree cabling makes it safe against a future failure. The rest of the garden stays in order with tree pruning and maintenance, hedging and tree shaping is the tidier end of the same work, and stump removal takes out what a removal leaves behind. Timber goes through the chipper and the mulch can stay on your beds, and we fit possum protection as well.

Storm work is its own kind of job. We have turned up to trees uprooted, caught by a side branch against another tree, or suspended in the air over a house, a garage or the service wires. Some of those we can only secure on the day and come back to finish; others come down the same day, and a branch hanging high over a roof can sometimes only be reached by a climbing arborist working multiple ropes to lower it clear of what you value most. If something is at risk right now, ring the Victoria State Emergency Service on 132 500 first. They will cut you a path out of the driveway, but they do not remove material from the site, and that is the gap we bridge. We cannot always help after normal business hours, though you can count on us through daylight hours, and you are welcome to text or email photos of the damage so we know how to prioritise the crews.

Michael and Mecs Dawson started Hive Tree Services in 2012 with a second-hand truck, a wood chipper and not one existing client. Michael had spent the 13 years before that, from 1998 to 2011, in his father's Melbourne tree business, learning the management, care, pruning and removal of trees and how to lead a crew. Mecs came at it from a science degree in how the body and mind connect and a few years in community mental health. Clients started referring us to their neighbours and friends, and referrals still bring the work in. The team now takes in climbing arborists and ground crew, a production manager, a leading hand and apprentice, and the office people who keep it all moving. Ring us, or send a text if that suits you better, and we will book a time to come and look at the tree.