Consulting arboriculture · Melbourne
Melbourne arborist reports, written so council can assess them without coming back.
Most reports that get sent back are not wrong about the trees. They just never say what the proposed slab does to the tree next to it, so the planner has nothing to assess and has to ask. I write reports that answer that question, to the current standard, with the fee agreed before I start.
Quotes back within one business day. Reports written to AS 4970:2025 and to Clause 52.37 as it stands today.
How it works
A fixed number, back within one business day
No charge to quote, and none if it turns out you do not need a report. How quoting works.
The problem
A request for further information can cost you a month or more
In my experience the same handful of gaps cause most of them, and they are rarely about the trees themselves. They are about what got left out of the writing up.
The impact on the tree is never stated
A thorough description of the trees that never says what the works do to each one. The planner has nothing to assess, so it goes back. Every retained tree needs a sentence connecting the works to that tree and stating the consequence.
The neighbour's tree left out
A tree over the fence whose root zone reaches into your site is squarely in scope, and that neighbour is often the objector. Leaving it out looks like either an oversight or an omission.
Protection written as a generic note
“Standard tree protection in accordance with AS 4970” gives a planner nothing they can write into a condition. They need to know where the fence goes, at what radius, when it goes up, who supervises it and what is allowed inside it. If a council officer cannot enforce it as written, it is not specific enough.
Most of the delay in a tree application comes from the report, not the tree.
Services
What I do, and what it costs
Ten services, covering everything from a look at the site before you buy it through to signing off the tree conditions at the end. All quoted as a fixed fee before I start.
Tree Removal Report
Council has asked for an arborist report before it will consider removing your tree. This is that report, and it is usually the whole job.
ResidentialArboricultural Impact Assessment
What councils ask for when your works reach into a tree's root zone. Each tree assessed, the zones calculated to AS 4970:2025, and the encroachment measured and justified.
DevelopmentClause 52.37 Canopy Tree Report
The provision that arrived in September 2025 and now catches trees nothing else reached. Which of yours are caught, whether you need a permit, and what replacement planting you owe.
Residential · PlanningPreliminary Tree Assessment
Commissioned before the design is drawn. Tells you what is on the site, which trees are protected, and where the root zones are going to sit against your footprint.
Before you designTree Protection Management Plan
The TPMP that gets conditioned on the permit, written to AS 4970:2025. Specific enough that a planner can enforce it and a site foreman can work to it.
DevelopmentRoot & Infrastructure Investigation
Finding out what the roots are actually doing without cutting them, and whether the tree is really behind the problem. Sewers, footings, paving and retaining walls.
InvestigationArboricultural Supervision
Named on the permit, on site at the hold points and signing off each stage. AS 4970:2025 assumes an arborist stays involved for the length of the project.
On siteConstruction Monitoring
Booked attendance across the build, with the stage records council needs to close out the tree conditions on your permit.
On siteTree Risk Assessment
A documented position on a tree you are worried about, using ISA Tree Risk Assessment Qualification methodology, with the reasoning set out so it holds up if anyone asks about it later.
TRAQ qualifiedTree Protection Zone Advice
A written answer on the root zones for one tree and one proposal, for when you need a figure to design against but not yet a full report.
Written adviceNew provision
Clause 52.37 caught a lot of people out
Amendment VC289 introduced Clause 52.37 Canopy Trees to every Victorian planning scheme on 15 September 2025. It can require a planning permit to remove a tree on a residential site where nothing else would have triggered one.
A tree is caught if it meets all three of: more than 5 m tall, trunk circumference over 0.5 m measured at 1.4 m, and a canopy at least 4 m across. It applies in most residential zones but not Low Density Residential.
The trap is the boundary tree. A canopy tree with any part of its trunk within 6 m of the narrowest street frontage or 4.5 m of the rear boundary loses the exemptions that would otherwise apply on a site with an existing dwelling.
The canopy tree minimum is the part that bites
The clause sets a minimum number of canopy trees for the site, and trees you keep count toward it, so what you have to plant is the shortfall. Sites up to 1,000 m² scale from one tree on a site of 100 m² or less to six between 701 and 1,000 m². Above 1,000 m² it switches to a minimum 20% canopy cover of the site area.
New trees have to reach at least 6 m tall and 4 m wide at maturity, and they need real ground to do it in. That is a constraint on your footprint, and much cheaper to allow for while the plans are still moving.
How it works
How the job runs, start to finish
Send me the plans
Site plan, proposed works and the address. If you have not had plans drawn yet, just send the address and tell me what you are hoping to build. That is usually a better time to call than after.
Fixed quote within one business day
A price and a scope you can read in a minute. If the job really needs two stages I will tell you that when I quote it.
Site inspection
Every tree measured and photographed on site, with the figures worked out while I am standing at the tree rather than reconstructed from notes a week later.
Report, and the follow-up
Delivered as a PDF you can lodge. If council comes back with a question about my report, answering it is included in what you already paid.
Seven years on the tools before I wrote a report
I climbed for a living before I started consulting. Knowing what a standard says is one thing. Having stood there while an excavator opened up a root plate is what tells you whether the protection you have specified is going to survive the job.
Councils
Local controls, council by council
Overlays, local policy, and what each council's arborist tends to send reports back for. Written for the person lodging a planning application. Almost every other council tree page online is aimed at a homeowner who just wants a tree gone.
Yarra
Clifton Hill, Fitzroy, Collingwood, Richmond, Abbotsford, Carlton North
Darebin
Northcote, Thornbury, Preston, Reservoir, Fairfield, Alphington
Merri-bek
Brunswick, Coburg, Pascoe Vale, Fawkner, Glenroy, Brunswick East
Banyule
Ivanhoe, Heidelberg, Eaglemont, Rosanna, Viewbank, Montmorency
Boroondara
Camberwell, Hawthorn, Kew, Balwyn, Glen Iris, Canterbury
Stonnington
Malvern, Toorak, Prahran, Armadale, Glen Iris, South Yarra
Whitehorse
Box Hill, Blackburn, Nunawading, Mitcham, Surrey Hills
Monash
Glen Waverley, Mount Waverley, Clayton, Oakleigh, Chadstone
Bayside
Brighton, Sandringham, Hampton, Black Rock, Beaumaris
Common questions
What qualification does a council require on an arborist report?
Several Victorian councils name AQF Level 5, the Diploma of Arboriculture, as the minimum for consulting work, and others ask for a suitably qualified arborist without naming a level. Where a council does name it, a report from an author below that level can be refused on qualification grounds alone.
What changed in AS 4970:2025?
The 2025 revision separated the calculated zone from the applied one. What used to be the calculated TPZ is now the Notional Root Zone (NRZ), and the TPZ is the area protected on site as determined by the project arborist. Diameter at Breast Height became Diameter at Standard Height, still measured at 1.4 metres. Encroachment is now assessed as a proportion of NRZ area rather than radius.
When did Clause 52.37 canopy trees start?
Amendment VC289 introduced Clause 52.37 to all Victorian planning schemes on 15 September 2025. It applies in most residential zones and can require a planning permit to remove a canopy tree even where no other permit is triggered.
Do you carry out the tree works as well?
No. This is a consulting practice only, so I do not prune, remove or climb. Nothing I recommend earns me work on the other side of it, which is the point. I am happy to recommend contractors.
Send me the plans and I will send you a number.
Fixed fee, quoted in writing within one business day, with the scope written down so nobody is surprised later. If it turns out you do not need a report, I will tell you that too.