Otway Tree Care

Each job runs to a documented SWMS and a safety checklist. That is not paperwork for its own sake. The Otways put trees on wet, steep, wind exposed slopes, and the coast between Apollo Bay and Wye River takes the weather before anywhere else does. Tom Kleindienst has spent more than 12 years working trees in this country, and he started Otway Tree Care so people out here could get a straight answer from a qualified arborist.

The machine that does the most work in that country is tracked. Our forestry mulching heads turn standing vegetation, brush and invasive species into mulch in a single pass, taking on gorse and blackberry, standing timber up to 200 to 300mm in diameter, fallen logs and dense scrub, and the tracks hold a hillside where wheels will not. Landholders use it to bring fire fuel loads down and cut fire breaks, to win back acres of scrub, and to keep the soil on the slope instead of watching it go downhill. We take on the property maintenance that keeps those same blocks in order afterwards.

The sharp end is tree removal, including the hazardous ones sitting over a roof. Where a removal is not warranted we will tell you so, and tree pruning keeps the tree standing where it is. Stump grinding and hedging finish the tidy up, and waste removal means the debris leaves with us instead of sitting in a pile beside the fence.

If your property carries a Vegetation Protection Overlay, you will need a report before anything comes down. We handle council permit support for Colac Otway Shire development applications and permits, along with hazard risk assessments, tree protection plans for construction sites, disease and pest diagnosis, and long term planning for estates and commercial sites. Ring us and we will check your property's status and tell you whether a formal report is actually required at all.

Our 24/7 emergency tree removal and storm response puts a crew out as soon as it is safe to move, and where wind or lightning makes that impossible we stabilise the site first and finish the removal once the crew can work. The patch runs across Colac, Elliminyt, Birregurra, Beeac, Alvie, Winchelsea, Camperdown, Lorne, Apollo Bay, Skenes Creek, Marengo, Wye River, Forrest, Gellibrand, Barwon Downs, Beech Forest and Lavers Hill, from a backyard through to a national park. Quotes are free and fixed, and a photo of the site helps us price it accurately. Ring 0448 762 058 at any hour, or 0468 004 630 for anything that can wait until morning, and you will hear back within 24 hours either way.