Tree Removal
in the Southern Highlands

The Southern Highlands sits on a cool-climate plateau about 110 kilometres south of Sydney, and its trees are half the reason people move here. The leafy estates of Bowral, Burradoo and Berrima are planted thick with old exotics - oaks, elms, liquidambars and the ornamental trees that turn the district gold each autumn and draw the Tulip Time crowds. Beyond the villages, tall native gums take over: ribbon gum, manna gum, brown barrel and snow gum on the higher, colder ground, with the rare remnant patches of Robertson rainforest clinging to the wetter basalt hills. An English oak in a Burradoo garden and a ribbon gum on a Colo Vale paddock have nothing in common botanically, but Wingecarribee measures them against one definition of a tree, and most established trees in the district pass it.

The Highlands climate keeps arborists busy year round. Hard frosts, cold snaps and the odd fall of snow load up limbs and split weak unions in mature gums, while summer storms and dry westerlies bring branches down. Out on the rural fringe the fire numbers are on the record: the Bush Fire Risk Management Plan covering the shire counts eighteen villages and four large towns sitting on an extensive interface with bushland, and an average of 400 bush and grass fires a year across the committee area, which is why fire-break and clearing work fills the calendar ahead of summer. What surprises people is how the council sorts the approval. It is not the size of the tree that decides which form you fill in, it is how many trees you want gone in a twelve month period, and crossing from one tier to the next turns a counter application into a development application. Worth knowing before you start counting. The arborists listed below deal with Wingecarribee weekly and can tell you which tier your job sits in. No fees, no middlemen.