Large and Dangerous Tree Removal Across the Wollondilly

The trees out here have weight in the wrong places

Along the sandstone country either side of the Bargo River, across the bushland boundaries at Appin and Buxton, on the ridges behind Thirlmere Lakes National Park and down the Nepean gorge at Douglas Park, the Wollondilly grows trees that are genuinely large — and, more to the point, dense. Ironbark is heavy timber. A limb that looks moderate from the ground can weigh several times what a homeowner estimates, which is exactly why a botched cut on one of these goes badly rather than just messily.

This page is about the jobs where size, lean, condition or what sits underneath means a standard removal approach will not do.

"Big" and "dangerous" are not the same word

Plenty of very large trees are straightforward. A sound, well-formed grey gum in an open paddock with room to fell is one of the easier days in the trade, regardless of height.

What makes a tree a specialist job is any of the following:

• Dead or fire-killed timber. Brittle, unpredictable, and impossible to trust. This is the single biggest reason a job gets reclassified.
• A lean, especially a changing lean. A tree that has always leaned is a known quantity. A tree that leans more than it did last year is telling you the root plate has moved.
• Structural defects at the union. Split forks, included bark where two leaders have grown against each other, or a torn limb still hanging in the crown.
• A compromised base. Vertical cracks, hollows, soft or drummy butt wood, or fungal fruiting bodies on the trunk base or a root buttress.
• A target that cannot be moved. House, shed, water tank, machinery, stockyards, a fence line you cannot afford to rebuild, or an overhead run crossing the paddock.
• Ground that will not take machinery. Slope, wet clay, or a gorge-side position where nothing can be positioned under the tree at all.

Any one of those changes the method. Two or three of them together changes the trade.

The fire-killed spar problem

A specific Wollondilly issue, and one people underestimate.

The Green Wattle Creek fire in the summer of 2019-20 burned across the Wollondilly, Wingecarribee, Upper Lachlan and Oberon local government areas. Well over half a decade on, a lot of blocks around Buxton, Bargo, Balmoral and the western bush country still carry standing dead stems from it, plus more recent casualties — trees that shot epicormic growth, held on for a few seasons and then failed anyway.

Those spars are harder to remove than the live tree next to them. Dead eucalypt timber loses its flex. Bark sheds, so there is nothing to grip. Limb unions let go without the warning signs a live tree gives. Climbing a dead spar is a decision an experienced crew makes carefully or refuses outright, which is often why the answer on these is a machine-assisted or platform-based take-down rather than a climb.

They are also the trees most likely to be doing something useful. A hollow-bearing dead tree well away from buildings, fences and tracks is habitat, and Wollondilly Shire Council's dead-tree exemption is explicitly conditional on the tree not being required as habitat for native animals. Removing the spar over the driveway and leaving the one in the back paddock is often both the safer and the better call.

Reading the tree before anyone goes near it

Things worth photographing and describing when you call:

• The base, all the way around — cracks, cavities, exposed or damaged roots, fungal brackets, soil lifted or cracked on one side.
• The main fork, if you can see it — is the union tight, or is there a seam running down out of it?
• Hangers. Broken limbs caught up in the crown are the most immediate risk on the whole site and should be treated as live until removed.
• The lean and its direction, and whether anything has changed.
• What is directly under it, and how far the nearest structure is.
• How close the nearest powerline is.

The more of that you can give over the phone, the better the crew that turns up will be matched to the job.

How these take-downs actually run

There is no single method, and any operator who quotes one before seeing the tree is guessing. Depending on the site, the realistic approaches are:

Sectional dismantle by climber. The tree comes apart from the top down, with limbs rigged and lowered on ropes rather than dropped. Standard for sound live trees on tight sites — around the older cottages in Picton, or the newer estate blocks at Tahmoor and Wilton where setbacks are small.

Elevated work platform. Where there is room to position a machine, working from a platform keeps the operator out of a tree that cannot be trusted. Common answer for dead and fire-killed stems.

Machine-assisted take-down. Grabbing, holding and controlling sections mechanically. Fast and safe where access and ground conditions allow it, which on acreage they often do.

Straight fell. Where a block genuinely has the room — an open paddock at Silverdale, Oakdale or Menangle — a controlled fell is safe, sensible and a much shorter day. Rural blocks are one of the few places this is still the right answer.

Most large jobs use more than one. Ground conditions decide as much as the tree does, which is why wet weather can push a booking back and why nobody should be pricing this sight-unseen.

While you are waiting

• Keep people, vehicles and stock out of the fall zone, and read the fall zone generously — well past the drip line, in the direction of the lean and beyond.
• Do not prop, brace, tie or push a leaning tree. It will not help and it puts you underneath it.
• Do not attempt to knock down a hanger with a pole, a rope or anything thrown.
• If wires are involved, stay 8 metres clear and call Endeavour Energy on 131 003.
• If a person is injured or trapped, call 000. For a structure affected by a fallen tree, the NSW SES takes storm and flood calls on 132 500.
• Photograph everything before it is touched, if it is safe to do so — useful for both Council and insurance.

The approval side of a dangerous tree

Wollondilly Shire Council's exemption for trees that are dead or dying and not required as native animal habitat covers a good share of these jobs. But a live tree with a structural defect is not automatically exempt, and Council advises contacting a consulting arborist where you are concerned a tree appears dangerous (Wollondilly Shire Council).

Where the tree is not exempt, the pathway is a Tree Management Application — Tier 1 for up to 5 trees or up to 100sqm of vegetation, Tier 2 for up to 10 trees or over 100sqm, with Council aiming to assess within 30 business days and permits valid 12 months.

We do not issue approvals and we do not obtain them for you. If we think you need one, you will be told before a crew is booked.

Get a proper look at it

These are the jobs where the difference between an experienced crew and a cheap one shows up in the outcome rather than the invoice. We ask the crews we work with to carry their own current public liability cover — ask to see the certificate before work starts.

Related: tree removal for standard take-downs, dead tree and deadwood removal for standing dead timber and hangers, and storm damage response when it has already come down. Coverage across the shire is on the areas serviced page, and everything else is on the home page.

Call (02) 4601 3180 and describe the tree, the lean and what is underneath it.