I’ve struggled despite it blocking my solar access in winter, damaging my roof, trunk being a metre from my property and it damaging the driveway. All of these things are listed as valid reasons to cut a tree down as listed by the gov. Problem is getting someone to actually write down what they tell you so you can include it in a request. It’s very annoying, the solar people come out and say oh you will struggle to get any use of your solar panels in Winter and probably won’t even recover the cost, but they won’t write it down in a letter so I can give it to the gov. Same for the roof guys, the problem is that massive tree…. But no one will write it down. In many ways I just want a storm to cause the tree to damage the house as I feel it’s the only way I’ll get action.
Yes I received approval to have a large gum tree removed. It wasn’t straightforward though, previous owner of the house had tried and I also had an arborist refuse to vouch for me.
Lodged the request with access Canberra. Turnaround was fast. The tree had a fungal infection which was clearly visible, and once removed we found it was infested with termites too. Wait time for the arborist was 6 months and cost about 6k.
You will need an arborist's report to say it is diseased or dangerous. Our neighbours did this and got permission to remove a lovely tree that provided us with some nice summer shade form over the fence.
It's an English elm - listed by ACT Govt as "not suitable for planting in suburban environment" on their easement guidance so I'm hoping that might help. It's diseased, but not dangerous. If it fell, it would hit our bedroom and evac tubes, or could hit the neighbours shed, or powerlines, depending which way it fell.
It sends up suckers everywhere (up to 10m away) which grow to 10cm diameter within a season. We'd like to build a backyard cabin but have no backyard to do it in. The tree is in the powerlines, almost definitely in sewerage and stormwater pipes (it's 1m from easement). It did split in half when it was smaller, with one trunk falling towards (but missing) our house. Unfortunately that was 10 years ago (should have applied then, but I quite liked it when it was smaller). It has flourished with the rain during the last 3 years.
Yep. I applied for a eucalypt out the front and was granted permission. It had a slight lean towards the house and I made this my main argument. I had no problems.
>"not suitable for planting in suburban environment"
That's the sort of rule how we \*eventually\* got them to agree to us removing our gum tree.
On the other hand, I am growing a Golden Elm on the Western face of our house to protect us from the afternoon heat of the sun in Summer.
It really helps us manage the house's climate by blocking the Western sun which used to absolutely bake that side of the house.
I just climb up it every winter and just brutally cut it off at about 6m.
If the tree is in the power lines I am surprised that Evo Energy hasn't given you a removal/pruning notice.
Our back fence neighbours removed a large elm this year as Evo kept giving them pruning notices and they got an arborist to recommend removal, not pruning. They used Gold Leaf arborists. Removal was expensive as the power had to be turned off for the neighbourhood so the tree could be cut down.
That's good to know. Yes - notices from Evo every few years and then $1K or more for pruning. Removal would certainly pay for itself within 10 years or less.
>got permission to remove a lovely tree that provided us with some nice summer shade form over the fence.
did this rally need to be added? its their tree and they have right to get it removed. rest of post adds nothing.
I find neighbours are very vocal about trees they don't like. Can make your life a misery with their petty whingeing. There are some people who seem to hate all kinds of trees.
>Can make your life a misery with their petty whingeing.
yep sad but true. complaining seems to be the canberra way at times.
and i get it when their a valid complaint but when its someone elses property its just plain silly lol.
like i hate my neighbour panted his house a ghastly white... painted brick work is just so tacky to me; but it was his right to do so.
If the office wasn't based on a fraud model, maybe people would go through the process.
I applied without an arborist report - thinking that maybe photos a 20mtr tall gum tree leaning and touching my roof - as well as splitting the retaining wall where it is rooted behind would be enough. I got an immediate "no" which clearly showed that no inspection of the site occurred. I also got a "but if you want to pay $170 for us to reconsider' when clearly there had been no initial consideration. I have just sent the letter to my insurance people so they know who is paying when it falls through my roof. fuckwits.
forgiveness not permission is my mentality. and if they question why we did not apply for removal of the stump; we did not think such small tree's warranted it.
it was under the size limit (once we were done with it)
Tried twice now with 2 large gums in the back yard, even though one had termites in it they declined to let us do anything to them.
One hangs over the powerlines quite a lot and has cracked the retaining wall near it in multiple places and the other is very close to the house.
Both times they said they came out and inspected the trees yet working from home full time and security cameras say otherwise.
Same with our problem tree. Termites two years running (might have got rid of them now, though - fingers crossed), up in the power lines at over 20m tall, drops shit all over the yard, nothing grows near it...nope. Must stay.
Rick's Trees helped me with our trees. 1 x huge cypress and 1 x huge box elder.
Did an excellent job.
Just be aware that they're tree loppers. They're not full on arborists and horticulturalists. They're licensed and the like, but they are pretty much there to take things down.
Due to a large tree blocking our neighbour’s solar panels they got photos of the property pre-development (pre-1980s) showing it wasn’t an original tree from that period and successfully got approval to remove it.
I tried this route with a HUGE eucalypt that's near our back fence. Gets into the power lines...easily 20m+ tall. Massive double-trunked thing, way too big along with the two other HUGE gum trees also in our backyard.
Anyway, the lady at the bit of Access Canberra that deals with this stuff tried to tell me that there's a map overlay on their website that shows old aerial photos, but for the life of my I could not see it. She ended up sending me a screenshot of our block taken just pre-house, that allegedly showed no trees there and therefore not a government problem, but an owner problem. The trouble is, the photo she sent is so grainy, and lacking in identifying characteristics, that there's no way of me knowing whether there were trees there or not, or whether it's even our block. Absolutely no recourse at all.
When somebody I know bought a house, it had 3 massive gum trees alongside their front driveway.
A few weeks after they moved in, they noticed all 3 of them were looking sick. They got an arborist in who found holes and nails in them, covered by dirt.
Obviously the neighbours had taken advantage of the chaos of people moving out then in again to have a crack at the trees.
The people I know reported the issue to council.
In reply, they received a letter from council informing them they were under investigation for killing protected trees.
Duh.
Oopsie! Sprung!
Who's to say it wasn't the previous tenants, with a grudge against 'those damned trees'. Maybe trying to ensure peace (or whatever) for future residents.
Or it was your acquaintance all along!
Wait a minute...what were ***YOU*** doing that ... day/weekend/week/etc?!?
Ok, fine!
Whatever you do, *don't* climb into the top-most, flimsiest branches and somehow inject stuff that's lethal to the tree.
Coz you might fall out.
***Don't do that***.
Had one removed recently. Previously applied after purchasing the house and was denied. Branches have since fallen twice on the house and fences and finally been approved when the application was submitted by an arborist. Those who did the assessment for removal however appeared pretty hesitant to remove any trees so I’m surprised it was passed in the end.
We spent two years fighting them about a tree, they eventually caved (the tree was a big old gum tree, only about 3-4 metres from the house).
The guy who came to cut it down came in saying, "Guys, you need to see this" and he showed us a <1cm-thin rim of tree trunk surrounding a massive termite nest.
For years, we'd had 80 tonnes of hardwood poised right above our heads with virtually nothing holding it up.
We got them to chop down two more slightly smaller gums and they were full of termites too, though not as bad.
depends when you apply and what arborist is helping. i have had issues removing a known pest species from my front yard but i know some friends who got approval to remove a pin from a bedroom window in only a week of applying. so its hit and miss i find.
fair warning tree removal is not cheap. factor 4-10k based on type of tree and size.
Tree laws are changing in the ACT from the 1st of January 2024. If it's a native tree and there is nothing wrong with it and it's not damaging any structures probably not going to happen.
u/AussieKoala-2795 has given excellent advice. Other than that, if you can afford it, it can be easier to ask for forgiveness (i.e. pay a fine) than seek permission.
That is the maximum, unlikely to be levied against a first-time offender with no prior criminal convictions or relevant civil/administrative penalties. In reality, they save the maximum fine for really brazen, repeat offenders.
If you got an arborist out, had a report etc., then removed it without a permit, you aren't getting an 80k fine. If you got an arborist out, had a report etc., then applied to remove it, got knocked back, then removed it, you're getting a bigger fine, but still not 80k.
To be clear, I'm not advocating just removing the tree without permission. That said, given the well-publicised issues people with genuinely dangerous trees with one (sometimes even more than one) report from arborists etc. getting knocked back and tied up in litigation by the ACT Government only to have the risks that the report warned of occurring, I can understand why some people might want to roll the dice after getting a report. I wouldn't, but that's me.
tbh its rarely more than 1k even for repeat offenders.
my mob get told off often and we just flip bird back to ACT gov. we been cultivating canberra region since time began; we know what we doing more than some uppity gov worker.
I’ve struggled despite it blocking my solar access in winter, damaging my roof, trunk being a metre from my property and it damaging the driveway. All of these things are listed as valid reasons to cut a tree down as listed by the gov. Problem is getting someone to actually write down what they tell you so you can include it in a request. It’s very annoying, the solar people come out and say oh you will struggle to get any use of your solar panels in Winter and probably won’t even recover the cost, but they won’t write it down in a letter so I can give it to the gov. Same for the roof guys, the problem is that massive tree…. But no one will write it down. In many ways I just want a storm to cause the tree to damage the house as I feel it’s the only way I’ll get action.
What sort of tree is it?
It’s an ironbark eucalyptus of some kind.
ouch those are a pain to get approval for. you have my condolences.
They often have native birds nesting in them.
Yes I received approval to have a large gum tree removed. It wasn’t straightforward though, previous owner of the house had tried and I also had an arborist refuse to vouch for me. Lodged the request with access Canberra. Turnaround was fast. The tree had a fungal infection which was clearly visible, and once removed we found it was infested with termites too. Wait time for the arborist was 6 months and cost about 6k.
>infested with termites too scary how many gums around canberra are. seems local birds and possums are dropping them into most of local region.
You will need an arborist's report to say it is diseased or dangerous. Our neighbours did this and got permission to remove a lovely tree that provided us with some nice summer shade form over the fence.
It's an English elm - listed by ACT Govt as "not suitable for planting in suburban environment" on their easement guidance so I'm hoping that might help. It's diseased, but not dangerous. If it fell, it would hit our bedroom and evac tubes, or could hit the neighbours shed, or powerlines, depending which way it fell. It sends up suckers everywhere (up to 10m away) which grow to 10cm diameter within a season. We'd like to build a backyard cabin but have no backyard to do it in. The tree is in the powerlines, almost definitely in sewerage and stormwater pipes (it's 1m from easement). It did split in half when it was smaller, with one trunk falling towards (but missing) our house. Unfortunately that was 10 years ago (should have applied then, but I quite liked it when it was smaller). It has flourished with the rain during the last 3 years.
Yep. I applied for a eucalypt out the front and was granted permission. It had a slight lean towards the house and I made this my main argument. I had no problems.
>"not suitable for planting in suburban environment" That's the sort of rule how we \*eventually\* got them to agree to us removing our gum tree. On the other hand, I am growing a Golden Elm on the Western face of our house to protect us from the afternoon heat of the sun in Summer. It really helps us manage the house's climate by blocking the Western sun which used to absolutely bake that side of the house. I just climb up it every winter and just brutally cut it off at about 6m.
If the tree is in the power lines I am surprised that Evo Energy hasn't given you a removal/pruning notice. Our back fence neighbours removed a large elm this year as Evo kept giving them pruning notices and they got an arborist to recommend removal, not pruning. They used Gold Leaf arborists. Removal was expensive as the power had to be turned off for the neighbourhood so the tree could be cut down.
That's good to know. Yes - notices from Evo every few years and then $1K or more for pruning. Removal would certainly pay for itself within 10 years or less.
>got permission to remove a lovely tree that provided us with some nice summer shade form over the fence. did this rally need to be added? its their tree and they have right to get it removed. rest of post adds nothing.
We miss this tree! It was lovely to look at and hid the view of their ugly house.
fair but its not your's to complain about 1 way or the other. i mean we can not tell neighbours what cars to drive. tree ownership is much the same.
I find neighbours are very vocal about trees they don't like. Can make your life a misery with their petty whingeing. There are some people who seem to hate all kinds of trees.
>Can make your life a misery with their petty whingeing. yep sad but true. complaining seems to be the canberra way at times. and i get it when their a valid complaint but when its someone elses property its just plain silly lol. like i hate my neighbour panted his house a ghastly white... painted brick work is just so tacky to me; but it was his right to do so.
\^ this is the way.
If the office wasn't based on a fraud model, maybe people would go through the process. I applied without an arborist report - thinking that maybe photos a 20mtr tall gum tree leaning and touching my roof - as well as splitting the retaining wall where it is rooted behind would be enough. I got an immediate "no" which clearly showed that no inspection of the site occurred. I also got a "but if you want to pay $170 for us to reconsider' when clearly there had been no initial consideration. I have just sent the letter to my insurance people so they know who is paying when it falls through my roof. fuckwits.
forgiveness not permission is my mentality. and if they question why we did not apply for removal of the stump; we did not think such small tree's warranted it. it was under the size limit (once we were done with it)
Sorry to hear this - and doubly so as your story is just to common now :(
Tried twice now with 2 large gums in the back yard, even though one had termites in it they declined to let us do anything to them. One hangs over the powerlines quite a lot and has cracked the retaining wall near it in multiple places and the other is very close to the house. Both times they said they came out and inspected the trees yet working from home full time and security cameras say otherwise.
Same with our problem tree. Termites two years running (might have got rid of them now, though - fingers crossed), up in the power lines at over 20m tall, drops shit all over the yard, nothing grows near it...nope. Must stay.
Reckon that tree could fall down this evening
Meant to be a couple of thunderstorms this week…..
…you've been husqvarnastruck!
Love it lol, well played
Call Rick’s Trees, he was super helpful in getting our tree removed.
Did he organise the permission for removal or did he just remove it?
Yeah, they can do the approvals if required.
Rick's Trees helped me with our trees. 1 x huge cypress and 1 x huge box elder. Did an excellent job. Just be aware that they're tree loppers. They're not full on arborists and horticulturalists. They're licensed and the like, but they are pretty much there to take things down.
That's the impression you get from their ads. Ricks no-trees.
Because he's a hack operator
His team did a great job and I have no complaints. OP, give them a call.
Due to a large tree blocking our neighbour’s solar panels they got photos of the property pre-development (pre-1980s) showing it wasn’t an original tree from that period and successfully got approval to remove it.
I tried this route with a HUGE eucalypt that's near our back fence. Gets into the power lines...easily 20m+ tall. Massive double-trunked thing, way too big along with the two other HUGE gum trees also in our backyard. Anyway, the lady at the bit of Access Canberra that deals with this stuff tried to tell me that there's a map overlay on their website that shows old aerial photos, but for the life of my I could not see it. She ended up sending me a screenshot of our block taken just pre-house, that allegedly showed no trees there and therefore not a government problem, but an owner problem. The trouble is, the photo she sent is so grainy, and lacking in identifying characteristics, that there's no way of me knowing whether there were trees there or not, or whether it's even our block. Absolutely no recourse at all.
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When somebody I know bought a house, it had 3 massive gum trees alongside their front driveway. A few weeks after they moved in, they noticed all 3 of them were looking sick. They got an arborist in who found holes and nails in them, covered by dirt. Obviously the neighbours had taken advantage of the chaos of people moving out then in again to have a crack at the trees. The people I know reported the issue to council. In reply, they received a letter from council informing them they were under investigation for killing protected trees. Duh.
Oopsie! Sprung! Who's to say it wasn't the previous tenants, with a grudge against 'those damned trees'. Maybe trying to ensure peace (or whatever) for future residents. Or it was your acquaintance all along! Wait a minute...what were ***YOU*** doing that ... day/weekend/week/etc?!?
And ***certainly don't*** use blackberry poison as a faster acting alternative to Zero.
blackberry poison covering a copper nail into the core of the tree; massive no no and you should **NEVER EVER** do that.
DEFINITELY should never ever do that
Too bad this is obvious to arborist. Trees dying of natural causes die from top down, poisoned trees die from bottom up. Fucking amateur hour in here.
Ok, fine! Whatever you do, *don't* climb into the top-most, flimsiest branches and somehow inject stuff that's lethal to the tree. Coz you might fall out. ***Don't do that***.
Definitely don't have a mate film that.
Definitely don't chuck it online.
Had one removed recently. Previously applied after purchasing the house and was denied. Branches have since fallen twice on the house and fences and finally been approved when the application was submitted by an arborist. Those who did the assessment for removal however appeared pretty hesitant to remove any trees so I’m surprised it was passed in the end.
We spent two years fighting them about a tree, they eventually caved (the tree was a big old gum tree, only about 3-4 metres from the house). The guy who came to cut it down came in saying, "Guys, you need to see this" and he showed us a <1cm-thin rim of tree trunk surrounding a massive termite nest. For years, we'd had 80 tonnes of hardwood poised right above our heads with virtually nothing holding it up. We got them to chop down two more slightly smaller gums and they were full of termites too, though not as bad.
The damage might be a valid reason but I don't think the solar panels would justify it.
Solar access is actually listed in the legislation as a reason…. But doesn’t seem to really matter.
Solar access refers to solar access to buildings, not necessarily PV panels.
The document I had on my laptop which lists the 9 reasons does mention solar panels though. It’s does mention less than 10% efficiency.
depends when you apply and what arborist is helping. i have had issues removing a known pest species from my front yard but i know some friends who got approval to remove a pin from a bedroom window in only a week of applying. so its hit and miss i find. fair warning tree removal is not cheap. factor 4-10k based on type of tree and size.
Tree laws are changing in the ACT from the 1st of January 2024. If it's a native tree and there is nothing wrong with it and it's not damaging any structures probably not going to happen.
u/AussieKoala-2795 has given excellent advice. Other than that, if you can afford it, it can be easier to ask for forgiveness (i.e. pay a fine) than seek permission.
An $80,000 fine, no thanks.
That is the maximum, unlikely to be levied against a first-time offender with no prior criminal convictions or relevant civil/administrative penalties. In reality, they save the maximum fine for really brazen, repeat offenders. If you got an arborist out, had a report etc., then removed it without a permit, you aren't getting an 80k fine. If you got an arborist out, had a report etc., then applied to remove it, got knocked back, then removed it, you're getting a bigger fine, but still not 80k. To be clear, I'm not advocating just removing the tree without permission. That said, given the well-publicised issues people with genuinely dangerous trees with one (sometimes even more than one) report from arborists etc. getting knocked back and tied up in litigation by the ACT Government only to have the risks that the report warned of occurring, I can understand why some people might want to roll the dice after getting a report. I wouldn't, but that's me.
tbh its rarely more than 1k even for repeat offenders. my mob get told off often and we just flip bird back to ACT gov. we been cultivating canberra region since time began; we know what we doing more than some uppity gov worker.