The Tree Company

A mature tree does not have to be lost to a redevelopment. Mature tree and palm transplanting lifts an established tree out of the ground and puts it back down somewhere it can keep growing, which is a very different proposition from cutting it up and starting again with a sapling. It is one of the jobs The Tree Company was built to take on.

Tom Aldous founded the business in 2000 and still directs it alongside Carl Dalla Riva. More than two decades on it is one of the larger arboricultural outfits in Melbourne, with an 85 strong team of qualified arborists and support staff and three depots at Surrey Hills, Preston and Flemington, from which crews cover the city and the areas around it. Size aside, the approach has not changed much: show up, do the job properly, and treat every tree and every client with the care they deserve.

The fleet is what makes that range possible. We own and operate 14 truck and chipper combinations, 6 elevated work platforms, 6 stump grinders, 10 utilities, 4 tip trucks, 2 excavators, 2 Kanga loaders, 2 tree planting and watering trucks, climbing and rigging equipment and plant health care gear, with many of the chainsaws now battery powered. Every tool and machine is inspected before it leaves a depot through our operator prestart process each morning, and anything defective is tagged out of operation and logged in our maintenance software for the workshop team. The elevated work platforms meet electrical line clearing safety requirements and comply with RMS, WorkCover, AS2550.10, AS1418.10, EC11 and ISSC25. Every piece of it is registered in Victoria and can be viewed or inspected on request.

Around tree removal and tree pruning sit the specialist services. Cable and dynamic bracing holds together a tree carrying a structural defect, and tree health care handles diagnosis and treatment. Afterwards, stump removal and grinding clears the ground, and habitat creation and nest box installation is a genuine part of what we offer, which counts for a great deal when a hollow bearing tree can be reduced instead of felled. A separate planting and maintenance division of around fifteen staff, with its own planting, watering and maintenance trucks, looks after tree establishment and long term canopy care.

Safety is where our paperwork lives. We hold ISO 9001, ISO 14001 and ISO 45001, covering management systems, environmental management and occupational health and safety, all certified through QAS International, and we carry 20 million dollars of public liability insurance with hazard assessments across our work. We also run our own in house aerial rescue training, covering gear checks, SRT and base anchor rescues, double rope and pick rescues, EWP emergency descent device evacuation and ground control rescue. That is the skill of getting an injured or unconscious workmate down out of a canopy, and it is not something anybody wants to be learning on the day.

Work splits between residential and commercial tree services, the commercial side taking in schools and universities, municipal and government contracts. Before any of that, though, comes the question of whether you are allowed to touch the tree at all. We keep plain language guides to the tree regulations of Boroondara, Whitehorse, Bayside, Monash, Stonnington, Yarra, Banyule, Kingston, Port Phillip and Glen Eira on our own site, council by council. Read the one that applies to you, then ring 1300 659 945 and we will come out and look at the tree.