Tree Response

Both of our directors came to arboriculture from somewhere else, and then went and took the degree. Sam Power started with an apprenticeship in Parks and Gardens. Matt Beshara worked as an irrigation specialist before he ever picked up a saw. Both went on to complete the Advanced Diploma of Horticulture (Arboriculture) and the Bachelor of Horticulture (Arboriculture) at the University of Melbourne's Burnley campus, both have over twenty years in the industry, and in 2009 they founded Tree Response.

The business has grown from small beginnings out of a depot at Brunswick, and it now covers metropolitan Melbourne, taking in the eastern, northern, southern and western suburbs. Our client base runs to local councils, Parks Victoria, schools and large architecture and development companies, alongside a great many homeowners. We are a member of the Victorian Tree Industry Organisation and accredited through eBIX Trades Monitor.

An English oak in East Melbourne is the job we would point you at. It had outgrown its position and was starting to work on the foundations of the building next to it, and there was nowhere on the site to put anything down. So it came out under advanced rigging technique, piece by piece, without the adjacent building being touched, and the logwood was salvaged off it for furniture production instead of going through the chipper. That is what we are talking about when we say confined access tree removal, and it is the sort of job climbing skill exists for.

Alongside that sits tree removal more generally, along with tree pruning and trimming, street tree pruning, and tree cabling and bracing for limbs that want holding instead of cutting. We plant as well: tree planting and transplanting come with selection and planting recommendations, and habitat creation and possum guarding cover the wildlife end of things. Residential and commercial clients get the same crew.

Tree health and management is where the diagnostics come in. Picus sonic tomography is a non invasive way of looking inside a tree, much as an ultrasound looks inside a person, and it finds decay and cavities without anybody drilling into the trunk. On a veteran tree, one carrying historical, ecological or cultural significance, that is the difference between an informed decision and a guess. We also identify pests and diseases and advise on treatment, from elm leaf beetle, lerps and psyllids, caterpillars, mites, aphids, scale, gum leaf skeletoniser and borers through to slime flux, mildews and blights, cypress canker, myrtle rust and Armillaria root rot, with soil drenching and stem injection treatments carried out in house.

The tree consulting side handles pre purchase and planning inspections, pre design reports, development impact assessments, tree management plans, tree risk assessments, assessments for Cultural Heritage Management Plans, tree root investigations, nursery stock audits, and witness statements and appearances at VCAT. A pre design report gets you a tree inventory with the tree protection zones marked on it, which is what keeps a development plan from being redrawn later at your expense. Ring 0407 320 115 or book an onsite quote, and one of us will come and look at the tree before a word gets written about it.