Northern Tree Care

My interest in trees began at age eight, working in the family stone fruit orchard, and it turned into a career that has run since the mid-1990s. I am Peter Gray, and Northern Tree Care is the arboricultural consultancy I own and operate out of Ballina in the Northern Rivers of New South Wales. I hold a Graduate Certificate in Arboriculture at AQF Level 8 along with two diplomas in the field, I sit as a director on the Board of Arboriculture Australia, and I have taught a great number of students at Wollongbar TAFE.

DA assessments, plans and reports are prepared for councils across the region, Arboricultural Impact Assessment reports deal with what a proposed development will do to the trees on and around a site, and arborist tree surveys cover whole populations for local government authorities, corporations, industry bodies, private landholders and developers.

Owners and managers of trees carry a duty of care to see that the level of risk attached to them is managed properly, and that is what a tree risk assessment answers. I assess to both the Quantified Tree Risk Assessment method and the VALID tree risk and benefit approach, having trained extensively in each. Root mapping gets used where the argument is about what is under the ground, which is usually where the argument is on a construction site.

Where a tree is declining rather than dangerous, tree health and management work starts with finding out why. Pest and disease identification and diagnosis sorts the treatable problems from the ones that are the end of the tree, and once a job is approved and under way, project arborist management keeps the works in line with what the consent actually requires.

Not every dispute needs to go to a hearing, so I take on dispute mediation between neighbours, owners and authorities, and where a matter does proceed, expert witness services as well. Alongside the client work I write articles on trees, insects, pests and soils, and run ArborMentor, a library of recorded mentoring sessions for other arborists working through the same problems.

The consultancy works across the Northern Rivers, from Ballina through Byron Bay and the surrounding shires. I am in the office Monday to Friday, nine to five. Ring or email with the property address and what has been asked of you, and I will tell you which assessment fits and what it will cost to have it done properly.