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Arborists in Ringwood, City of Maroondah, VIC

Tree Removal
in Ringwood

The rule that decides whether a Ringwood tree needs council permission was rewritten in September 2025, and a good deal of what is still repeated about it describes the version before that. Under the canopy tree provisions as they now sit in the Maroondah Planning Scheme, a tree only counts as a canopy tree once it clears three separate bars: taller than 5 metres, thicker than 0.5 metres around the trunk when the tape sits 1.4 metres up, and spreading a crown of 4 metres or wider. Fail any one of the three and the clause does not reach it. Then comes the part that settles most jobs on an ordinary block: removing, destroying or lopping one of those needs a permit across the residential zones, though not on a site already developed with an existing dwelling, and that let-off stops short of a boundary canopy tree. A boundary canopy tree is defined by where the trunk stands: any part of it inside 6 metres of the lot’s narrowest street frontage, or inside 4.5 metres of its rear boundary. On a Ringwood block with a house already standing, in other words, the trees worth asking about first are the ones out by the kerb and the ones along the back fence.

What is growing on that block is stringybark country with a local wrinkle. The council’s biodiversity study describes the gently undulating Gippsland Plain country that makes up most of Maroondah as Valley Heathy Forest, an assemblage you pick by its Silver-leafed Stringybark, typically with Bundy, Messmate, Red Stringybark or Narrow-leaved Peppermint growing beside it, and it records that Yellow Box turns up in some of those stands, particularly on Loughnan Hill in Ringwood. On the steeper falls toward Mullum Mullum Creek and Dandenong Creek the same study puts Manna Gum prominent on the slopes near both creeks, and that is ground where getting a chipper and a truck into position, rather than the cutting, sets the price. A Significant Landscape Overlay or a Vegetation Protection Overlay can sit across the same title and apply its own separate test, so run your address through the state’s free property report before anyone is booked. Give two or three of the arborists listed below the same scope to price, and confirm the insurance before anybody climbs.

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Pricing

What tree work costs in Ringwood

Small tree removal
$400-$1,500
under 5 m, room down the side
Medium tree removal
$1,500-$4,500
5-12 m, roped down in sections
Mature eucalypt
$4,000-$12,000
12 m+, staged dismantle or crane
Tree pruning
$250-$2,500
per tree, scope sets the number
Stump grinding
$80-$400
per stump, priced off the cut face
Arborist report
$300-$700
one tree, AQF Level 5

Treat those as national ranges to argue with, not Ringwood quotes. Nobody publishes audited suburb pricing, and a figure recited over the phone is worth what it costs to say. Two things move a Ringwood number further than the tree itself does. The first is whether an application stands in the way, because a tree the clause catches cannot be touched until council decides, and that wait is part of what you are agreeing to; the charge is not council’s to set either, since Maroondah states that its schedule is a summary only, that the amounts themselves come from the Planning and Environment (Fees) Regulations 2016, and that those regulations prevail over its own table wherever the two part company. The second is how far the work goes, because lopping or pruning for maintenance only is exempt from the permit requirement provided no more than a third of the foliage comes off, the trunk itself is left alone, and the work does not drop the tree below 5 metres in height or its canopy below 4 metres across. A reduction scoped to stay inside that line skips the application; one that goes past it does not. Ask for felling, stump, green waste and any permit lodgement on separate lines, and our tree removal cost guide covers the rest. Prices include GST.

Services

Tree removal, tree pruning and stump grinding in Ringwood

Tree removal, from garden trees up to mature eucalypts
Sectional dismantling and rigging where there is no drop zone
Stump removal & grinding, surface roots included
Crown reduction and deadwooding, cut to AS 4373
Tree pruning, including maintenance work kept inside the exempt limit
Tree lopping enquiries, scoped and quoted properly instead
Storm damage and emergency make-safe call-outs
Tree health and stability assessments for a permit application
Work near powerlines, under Victoria’s line clearance rules
Tree protection on building sites, set out to AS 4970
Overlay checks and planning permit applications
Mulching, wood chipping and green waste removal
Advice

How to choose an arborist in Ringwood

Three tests, and it has to pass all of them

Most people assume height alone decides it. Under the current clause a canopy tree has to be over 5 metres tall and over 0.5 metres around the trunk and carrying a canopy of at least 4 metres, all three together. A tall skinny wattle with a narrow crown can miss on two counts. Whoever quotes should arrive with a tape and take all three measurements rather than eyeballing the height and calling it protected.

Two rulebooks, two different tape heights

This one catches out people who read only half the picture. The canopy tree clause puts the tape at 1.4 metres above ground level. Maroondah’s landscape overlay schedule works from a metre up and is written the other way round, as an exemption: a tree escapes the permit only if its single trunk circumference is under 0.5 metres, or its diameter under 16 centimetres, at one metre above the ground, and it stands under 5 metres tall. Both have to be true for the tree to be let off, so either measurement on its own is enough to pull you in. That same schedule also exempts any tree standing inside 3 metres of an existing house or other building, along with pruning carried out for regeneration or ornamental shaping. That 3 metre allowance is the carve-out most Ringwood owners never hear about, and it covers a lot of trees planted close to the house.

The house already on your block matters

The carve-out that decides most suburban jobs is easy to miss. On a site already developed with an existing dwelling, the permit requirement drops away for a canopy tree, and it keeps applying only where that tree is a boundary canopy tree. So a gum standing out in the middle of the yard sits quite differently from one hard against the back fence. Establish which side of that line your tree falls on before anyone quotes a permit fee into the job.

Dead is exempt; dying takes a different door

Two separate routes exist and they do not ask for the same thing. Under the canopy tree clause the exemption is narrow: a canopy tree that is dead, or emergency works where the tree poses an immediate risk of injury to a person or damage to property, and even then only the portion carrying that risk. The council’s overlay route reaches further, lifting the permit where a suitably qualified person states that the tree is dead or dying and has become immediately dangerous, with Certificate 5 in Arboriculture, or horticulture at diploma or degree level, named as the standing it looks for behind that declaration. Get it in writing first, keep your copy, and send one to council.

Ringwood is being built up, and that changes the question

This is not a static suburb. The state has finalised an activity centre plan for Ringwood in which strategic sites in the centre core can reach 20 storeys, the rest of the core runs 4 to 15 storeys, the inner catchment allows 4 storeys and 6 on larger lots, and most of the outer catchment allows 3. On a site being redeveloped the existing-dwelling carve-out falls away, which puts the trees back under the permit and makes a tree protection plan to AS 4970 part of the build rather than an afterthought.

Two tickets, and a certificate you should actually read

The crew who climb and the person who writes the assessment hold different qualifications. Arboriculture Australia sets AQF Level 3, the Certificate III in Arboriculture, behind its registered practising category, and AQF Level 5, the Diploma of Arboriculture, behind its consulting one. Maroondah is blunt about which it wants for a risk call, telling residents it wants a minimum Certificate V in Arboriculture behind any judgement that a tree is dangerous. On cover, it will not register anybody carrying under $5 million of public liability, and the consulting category adds $2 million of professional indemnity on top of that. That is a floor rather than a target. Ask to see the currency certificate, and satisfy yourself the entity printed across it is the same one signing your quote.

FAQ

Frequently asked questions

Do I need a permit to remove a tree in Ringwood? +
It depends on the tree and on what is already built on the land. The canopy tree clause in the Maroondah Planning Scheme only bites on a tree that is more than 5 metres tall and more than 0.5 metres in trunk circumference measured 1.4 metres up and carrying a canopy of at least 4 metres, all three at once. Where all three are met, a permit is needed through the residential zones, with one large exception: land already developed with a dwelling is let off, and that let-off does not extend to a boundary canopy tree, meaning one whose trunk has any part of it inside 6 metres of the lot’s narrowest street frontage or inside 4.5 metres of its rear boundary. A landscape overlay can then apply its own separate test on top, and its schedule only lets a tree off where the trunk is under 0.5 metres in circumference at a metre up and the tree is under 5 metres tall, though it also lets off anything growing inside 3 metres of an existing house or building. Find out which controls actually sit over your address by running it through the state’s free property report first.
How much does tree removal cost in Ringwood? +
A garden tree under 5 metres with clear access down the side generally sits somewhere around $400 to $1,500, a tree in the 5 to 12 metre range that has to come down in sections lands nearer $1,500 to $4,500, and a mature eucalypt over 12 metres can run from $4,000 well past $12,000 once a crane or a long staged dismantle is involved. Those are national ranges rather than surveyed Ringwood prices, so use them to sense-check a quote rather than to argue a number. Three local things then move that number. Whether a permit is in the way, and the weeks that adds. Access, which is the real cost on the steeper ground toward Mullum Mullum Creek and Dandenong Creek where a chipper cannot simply be backed up to the tree. And the timber, since a dense eucalypt is slower to grind than a soft-wooded exotic of the same girth.
Can I prune a tree in Ringwood without applying for anything? +
Often yes, within a defined limit. The canopy tree clause exempts lopping or pruning for maintenance only where no more than a third of the foliage is removed, and it excludes pruning the trunk itself and any work that would bring the tree below 5 metres in height or its canopy below 4 metres across. That is a genuine ceiling, not a guideline, and a heavy reduction sails past it. This is also where the word lopping earns its bad name: shortening limbs back to blunt stubs opens wounds a tree cannot seal and triggers a flush of weakly attached regrowth that tends to fail within a few seasons. The Australian Standard for pruning amenity trees sets out the defensible alternative. Expect a proper operator to say which limbs are going, why, and what proportion of the crown that represents.
I need an arborist in Ringwood for a report rather than a removal. What is different? +
A report is a written assessment, and for a permit application it is often mandatory rather than optional. The clause requires an application to be accompanied by an assessment of the canopy tree prepared by a suitably qualified person where removal or lopping is proposed because of the tree’s health or stability, alongside plans showing the species, height and canopy diameter of every canopy tree on the site. Maroondah says it asks for a minimum Certificate V in Arboriculture behind any finding that a risk is not acceptable or tolerable. That is the consulting qualification, AQF Level 5, and it is a separate ticket from the AQF Level 3 certificate held by the climbing and removal crew. Both are legitimate; only one of them writes the assessment council will read.
My neighbour’s tree hangs over my Ringwood fence. What can I do? +
Victoria has no statute for tree disputes between neighbours, so the position rests on general property law. State guidance sets out what is called the right of abatement, and it runs like this: growth crossing your boundary line can be trimmed back at your own expense, stepping onto the neighbour’s land to do it needs their agreement, any harm you do to their tree is on you, and how the cuttings go back should be settled in advance. That guidance also tells you to ask your local council whether the tree is protected, because you may need a permit to cut it back, which in Ringwood is the whole point: protection does not stop at the fence, and trimming a protected limb without approval moves the liability onto you. Start with the conversation, and where a trunk sits hard against the boundary, establish which title it actually grows on before either household spends a dollar.
A storm has brought a tree down in Ringwood. Who do I call first? +
While the danger is still live, the number you want is 132 500. The service’s own guidance draws the line precisely: ring 132 500 if a tree or large branch has fallen and is stopping you getting in or out of your home, or has damaged the roof, and call 000 instead if a life is in danger, whereas removing debris and cutting down trees that are still standing is work it directs you to a professional tradesperson for. Treat any limb touching a cable as live until the distributor says otherwise, because only authorised powerline pruning contractors should work on trees touching or close to powerlines, and ordinary pruning should be done before growth reaches within one metre in any direction of an insulated service line. The work normally lands in two visits: a make-safe that kills the immediate danger, then the removal proper once the site is calm enough to scope it. Photograph everything before anything is dragged clear, because that is what an insurer assesses.
I removed a tree last year. Does that affect my next application? +
It can, and this is a recent addition worth knowing about. Among the matters the responsible authority must consider before deciding is the cumulative impact of reducing existing canopy trees where trees on the same site have been removed, destroyed or lopped within the past 12 months. Council also weighs the health and stability of the tree, whether it is damaging or at risk of damaging buildings or infrastructure, and whether a proposed development was sited to minimise its impact on canopy trees. Clearing a block one tree at a time over consecutive years is therefore a visible pattern rather than a series of unrelated requests. If you know several trees have to go, it is usually better to put them in one application with an arborist’s reasoning attached than to drip-feed them.
Local Arborists

Arborists in Ringwood

Crews covering Ringwood along with Ringwood East, Ringwood North, Heathmont, Warranwood, Croydon and Bayswater North. Every profile sets out a real service list, the hours worked, and a number that rings straight through. No position here is bought, no enquiry is resold, and we take no cut from either end of the job.

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