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Arborists in the Redlands, QLD

Tree Removal
in the Redlands

Reach for the property map before the tape measure, because what decides a Redlands job is where the tree stands and how much ground you are clearing, not how thick the trunk is. Redland City Council runs two instruments and they answer two different questions. Local Law 6 covers individual trees with significant amenity, cultural or heritage values, through registered Vegetation Protection Orders, and it expressly does not regulate the clearing of significant native vegetation. That job belongs to the Redland City Plan and its environmental significance overlay. Where your native vegetation is mapped in that overlay, the question becomes area: council’s own checklist allows an urban property to clear up to 500 square metres, counted against every clearing on that lot since the first version of City Plan, while vegetation in the waterway corridors and wetlands overlay needs approval no matter how small the job. On a Redlands block the first tool is the property map, not the tape.

The rest follows from where the city sits. Council describes Redlands Coast as mainland and island communities together: urban in the north, rural and bushland in the south, plus Minjerribah, Coochiemudlo and the Southern Moreton Bay Islands of Macleay, Lamb, Karragarra and Russell, holding dry and wet eucalypt forest, littoral and creekside rainforest, heath, wetland, mangrove and saltmarsh. Council also places Redlands Coast inside the wider south east Queensland Koala Coast, where a 2015 study put the decline in koala numbers at an estimated 80 per cent between 1996 and 2014, and the animals that remain use ordinary suburban trees. Scale is the other constant. Queensland blue gum grows to 50 metres in the Redlands and scribbly gum to 30, so a routine removal here is rarely a small job. The arborists listed below work these streets, and on the islands, the barge timetable too.

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Pricing

What tree removal costs in the Redlands

Small tree removal
$450-$1,400
under 5 m
Large tree removal
$2,800-$9,000
mature blue gum, 20 m+
Pruning & deadwooding
$380-$1,800
per tree, one visit
Stump grinding
$150-$600
per stump
Arborist report
$500-$1,300
consulting arborist, per report

Prices shown include GST and are indicative only. What separates a cheap Redlands quote from an expensive one is rarely the tree on its own. Height leads, and it is no small factor where the local gums stand 30 and 50 metres. The water comes next, and it splits the city in two: a Thornlands or Victoria Point block will normally let a chipper up the driveway, while to Macleay, Lamb, Karragarra, Russell or Minjerribah the crew, the machine and every load of timber cross on a barge, and that time is charged rather than absorbed. What lives in the tree is third, because a hollow or a koala reorders the work before it touches the number. Council’s own fee is fourth, it is not the arborist’s money, and it arrives on a separate bill. Take the figure from council’s register of fees the day you apply, since the register is reviewed annually and a figure quoted last season may already be stale.

Services

Tree removal, tree lopping and arborist reports in the Redlands

Tree removal, garden trees through to mature blue gums
Stump grinding & surface root removal
Pruning and deadwooding to AS 4373
Storm damage & emergency make-safe call-outs
Hazardous tree assessment and the AQF 5 Tree Assessment Report council asks for
Clearing applications under the environmental significance overlay
Local Law 6 permits for Vegetation Protection Order and Tree Protection Area trees
Tree protection plans for development sites (AS 4970)
Island work across Macleay, Lamb, Karragarra, Russell and Minjerribah
Asset protection zone and firebreak vegetation work
Koala food tree and stepping-stone tree retention advice
Mulching, wood chipping & green waste removal
Advice

How to choose a qualified arborist in the Redlands

Pull the map before you pick up a tape

Elsewhere you measure the trunk. Here you check whether the vegetation is mapped, and then how much ground the work covers. Council’s clearing checklist sends you to the Red-e-map property report for your zone and overlays first, then works through the environmental significance overlay, the waterway corridors and wetlands overlay, and the area limits that apply in your zone. An arborist who quotes on sight without asking what your report says is guessing on your behalf.

Redland names both qualifications itself

Most councils leave this vague. This one does not. Council recommends a qualified arborist of minimum AQF 3 for maintenance work on private trees, and requires the arborist assessing a protected tree said to be dangerous to hold minimum AQF 5 qualifications, with a Tree Assessment Report lodged in support of the application. AQF 3 is the climbing and removal tier; AQF 5 is the consulting tier that writes reports. Ask which one is coming, because they are often two different people.

Dead and dangerous are separate questions

Council treats a dead standing tree on a rural property as usually protected where it holds significant hollow-bearing limbs or habitat value, and suggests pruning it to a habitat structure instead, while a dead tree on an urban lot may be removed as a high risk where no sustainable management option exists. It also recommends photographing the tree and its surroundings before removal, in case a council officer later investigates an illegal clearing allegation. Storm work is different again: if a tree is down and dangerous, the SES takes flood and storm requests on 132 500 before any quote is written.

Ask what happens if there is wildlife in it

Council lists the koala as endangered at both state and Commonwealth level and describes local animals in street trees, backyards and shopping centre car parks, and recommends an accredited fauna spotter be engaged where native wildlife is present in vegetation being cleared. Older veteran trees and stags matter for the same reason, since the size and number of their hollows makes them breeding habitat that wildlife returns to each season. Put the question to whoever quotes. A blank look is your answer.

Insurance: the certificate, not the number

Insist on sighting the certificate itself rather than being told a policy number. You want the document in front of you, still in date, naming the insured business exactly as your quote does. The two tiers also carry different cover, which matters here because council wants a Tree Assessment Report from an arborist of minimum AQF 5 before it decides a protected tree: the peak body registers a practising arborist on $5 million public liability, and a consulting arborist on that same figure together with $2 million professional indemnity. Both are floors rather than midpoints. A body corporate, a commercial site or a condition on a council approval can each ask for more.

Lopping is the search term, not the job

Tree lopping is the phrase people search with, and no shortage of operators will sell precisely that. Take a canopy back to stubs and you buy soft regrowth anchored in rotting wood, which is the material that lets go in the next storm. Council points routine pruning and tree maintenance at AS 4373-2007 and lists the practices it means: deadwood removal, canopy lift, canopy reduction, selective pruning, thinning and remedial pruning. AS 4373 sets out how amenity trees are to be pruned in Australia. Make the quote name it, and make it describe the cuts.

FAQ

Frequently asked questions

Do I need council approval to remove a tree in the Redlands? +
It depends on the map, not on the size of the tree. The tests here are about where your tree stands and how much ground the work covers. Council’s own advice is that a tree on private land may be caught by the Redland City Plan environmental overlays, by a covenant, by a building or development envelope, by a condition of a development approval, or by one of the few Vegetation Protection Orders and Tree Protection Areas still in effect. Where native vegetation is mapped in the environmental significance overlay, the trigger becomes the area you intend to clear: council’s checklist allows an urban property up to 500 square metres, counted against everything cleared on that lot since the first version of City Plan, while anything in the waterway corridors and wetlands overlay needs approval regardless of area. Unsafe vegetation is caught as well: council says approval is generally needed to take it out, and carves out only work that is required to cut an imminent risk of someone being seriously hurt or of infrastructure being damaged. Start by pulling your property report off Red-e-map, then ring council before you ring anyone with a saw.
What is a Vegetation Protection Order and how do I know if one covers my tree? +
It is an order made over an individual tree that council considers worth singling out. Local Law 6 protects vegetation with significant amenity, cultural or heritage values, requires those orders to be registered, and prohibits or limits damage to the vegetation they cover, and the local law sets a maximum penalty of 850 penalty units for damaging protected vegetation. The important qualification is scope: Local Law 6 does not regulate the clearing of significant native vegetation in the Redlands at all, because that sits under the City Plan environmental significance overlay instead. Council also notes that most Tree Protection Areas and Vegetation Protection Orders have been superseded by City Plan, and that the way to find out whether one, or a covenant, or a development approval condition still applies to your trees is to contact council. There is no public map you can settle this from at the kerb.
How much does tree removal cost in the Redlands? +
Allow roughly $450 to $1,400 on a garden tree of about 5 metres, and $2,800 to $9,000 on a mature blue gum past 20 metres with the rigging and the waste included. Grinding a stump out sits near $150 to $600. Pruning or deadwooding one established tree sits near $380 to $1,800, and a consulting report near $500 to $1,300. Two local factors move these more than they would elsewhere. Height is one, since a full-grown blue gum here is a 50 metre proposition. The crossing is the other: to Macleay, Lamb, Karragarra, Russell or Minjerribah, plant and timber both travel by barge, and that time is charged. Prices shown include GST, are indicative only, and leave out council’s application fee, which arrives on its own bill.
There is a koala in the tree. What happens now? +
Work stops and somebody qualified looks at it, because this is not a rare event in the Redlands. Council records the koala as endangered at both Queensland and Commonwealth level, and describes local koalas using bushland, parkland, street trees, schoolyards, urban backyards and shopping centre car parks. Young koalas disperse from July to December, travel along the ground between trees, and will use any species on the way, native or not, as stepping stones. That is why the tree you are removing may matter to an animal even if it is a mango or a poinciana. Council recommends engaging an accredited fauna spotter where native wildlife is present in vegetation being cleared. A crew that has never mentioned this before quoting has told you something about how often they work here.
Can I cut branches that hang over from next door? +
Sometimes, and Queensland writes the test as two measurements. You can give the tree-keeper a formal notice to remove overhanging branches where the branches overhang more than 50 centimetres over the boundary and sit less than 2.5 metres above the ground, and where the tree is not covered by a vegetation protection order. The notice gives the tree-keeper 30 days, after which you may have the branches cut and returned to their property, and you can seek up to $300 towards the cost, though you are not authorised to enter their land. Read that carve-out twice on a Redlands block, because it points straight back at Local Law 6: a tree under an order sits outside the self-help route altogether, and Local Law 6 keeps governing what may be cut off it.
Is tree work on the bay islands different? +
Yes, in two ways that change a quote before anybody looks at the tree. Council describes Redlands Coast as mainland and island communities together, including Minjerribah, Coochiemudlo and the Southern Moreton Bay Islands of Macleay, Lamb, Karragarra and Russell, so plant and waste move on a barge timetable and a half-day job can occupy a full day. The second is what grows at the water’s edge. All marine plants in Queensland are protected under the Fisheries Act 1994 across every land tenure including private land, alive or dead, and the definition covers mangroves, saltmarsh, samphires and even dead marine wood. Eight mangrove species have been recorded around Moreton Bay, along the mainland coastline, on the islands and on the western side of North Stradbroke Island. If your tree stands on tidal ground, the approval that matters is a State one rather than a council one.
Local Arborists

Arborists in the Redlands

Tree crews and consulting arborists covering Redland City, from Capalaba and Cleveland through Thornlands and Victoria Point down to Redland Bay and out to the islands. Open any listing for that operator’s direct number, the work they take on and when they answer. Have two or three of them price one identical scope before you sign.

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Service Areas

Suburbs and islands we cover in Redland City

Capalaba Cleveland Alexandra Hills Birkdale Wellington Point Thornlands Victoria Point Redland Bay Mount Cotton Macleay Island Russell Island Dunwich
Nearby & Related

Where else we cover, and what to read next

Brisbane arborists Brisbane east Logan Queensland Tree removal Tree lopping Stump removal Emergency tree removal Arborist reports Lopper or arborist? Tree removal costs

Regulatory details on this page were verified as at . Council rules, fees and penalty values change; confirm with your council before acting. See our disclaimer.