Xylology Arboricultural Consultancy

Plenty of tree defects cannot be judged from the ground, and plenty more cannot be judged from outside the trunk at all. Where a tree warrants it, Xylology Arboricultural Consultancy arranges an aerial assessment to get a proper look at what is happening in the canopy, or an advanced assessment using technology such as sonic tomography to establish what the wood is doing inside. Below ground the same question gets answered with an air spade, a hydrovac, hand excavation or ground penetrating radar. On root location and mapping we advise on which of those suits the job, direct you to a suitably qualified operator with the specialised equipment, and write the findings up for submission to council or to court.

Every consultant here holds a Diploma level qualification in Arboriculture under the Australian Qualification Framework at Level 5, with a minimum of ten years in the industry behind it and a standing commitment to professional development and industry best practice. Our work covers tree management on both public and private land for government, institutional, commercial and residential clients, out of Church Point with further offices at Cronulla and on the Northern Beaches, servicing the Sydney region and taking on interstate and territory locations where a project calls for it.

On a development the reports come in sequence. A Preliminary Tree Assessment belongs at the beginning, once the site surveys are finished: trees numbered, assessed and allocated a retention value, so the arboricultural data can guide the layout before a Development Application is lodged. Once the final layout is complete, the Arboricultural Impact Assessment identifies which trees are removed, retained or transplanted, sets out the possible impacts on the ones being kept, and recommends the measures needed to protect them through every demolition and construction stage. The Tree Protection Plan then draws the Tree Protection Zones and the specifications, and forms part of both the development plans and the construction documentation. All of it is completed in line with AS4970-2009 and the relevant planning policies, and our project arborists carry the job through consultation with designers, monitoring and certification.

For risk work our staff are trained in the International Society of Arboriculture Tree Risk Assessment Qualification and in Quantified Tree Risk Assessment, so a hazard and risk assessment from us is a recognised methodology applied with a common sense approach, and reported the same way. When a matter reaches the Land and Environment Court, the arborist giving evidence has an overriding duty to assist the court impartially on matters within their expertise, and we provide that expert witness representation along with the statements and reports behind it. Tree surveys, audits and mapping can be one-off or run on a cycle, and are often what a liability requirement is actually asking for. We locate trees spatially to survey level accuracy and hand the results back as reports, maps and data in Esri File Geodatabase, Shapefile, KML or Excel, whichever your asset system takes.

We specialise in pest and disease identification and diagnosis, worked through the site conditions, the previous management and the symptoms of stress, with lab analysis where it is necessary, to determine the probable cause of a tree's decline or damage. Our tree maintenance and management reports come out of the same assessment, with recommendations specific to that tree and that site. Where a monetary figure is needed, our tree valuations cover the application of bonds, compensation in litigation, inclusions in contracts and asset valuation management plans, and we help select the method that will be accepted in the industry and the courts. Call 0416 061 620 or email with your project requirements, and we will tell you which report answers them and how the work would run.