Tree Amigos

Tree Amigos was started in 2010 by two qualified arborists, Taman and Alex, and now runs a team of 18 across north and north east Melbourne. They put their own tally at more than 12,000 tree inspections, which is a more useful figure than most of the numbers businesses quote. The crew carry WorkCover cover and up to $20 million in public liability. The office runs Monday to Friday, 9am to 4:30pm.

Tree and stump removal is the headline work, and the team specialise in the large ones, the trees that need a proper plan rather than a chainsaw and optimism. Access on the older northern blocks is usually the constraint: the tree is in the back corner and there is one gate to get gear through. Stump grinding clears what is left in the ground. Commercial tree removal is a separate line, for body corporates, developers and sites where the work has to fit around people still using the place.

Tree pruning and hazard reduction is the maintenance and safety side, aimed at the limbs that will otherwise come down on their own terms. Hazard reduction carries more weight out on the Macedon and Kinglake side, where a tree failure is a different conversation entirely. Palm tree care handles fronds and seed heads. Mulching and site clearing covers blocks that need clearing back rather than trimming, and the chip does not go to waste, because mulch sales are part of the business.

Two of their services are less common. Possum guard installation fits collars to trunks so possums stop using the tree as a highway into a roof, which is a cheaper fix than most of the alternatives people try first. Arborist reports cover the paperwork end, for council permit applications and for anyone who wants a qualified opinion in writing before spending money on a tree.

The patch is the northern suburbs and the north east: Eltham, Diamond Creek, Hurstbridge, Greensborough, Lower Plenty, Templestowe, Warrandyte and Doncaster out that way, with Coburg, Brunswick, Pascoe Vale, Glenroy, Essendon, Mill Park and Craigieburn closer in. It reaches past the fringe as well, to Wallan, Sunbury, Gisborne, Riddells Creek, Woodend and Mount Macedon.