One region, several very different jobs
Sydney's North Shore looks uniform from the Pacific Highway and is not. Two things change under your feet as you move across it, and both change what a tree job costs.
The first is geology. The ridge line running north through Chatswood, Gordon, Pymble and St Ives sits on Wianamatta shale — deep, fertile soil that grew tall wet-sclerophyll forest. That is why the back gardens there hold enormous blackbutt, Sydney blue gum and turpentine. Either side of the ridge the country falls away to Hawkesbury sandstone, thin soil over rock, and the forest changes to Sydney peppermint, angophora, scribbly gum and red bloodwood on steep ground.
The second is the council. Five different sets of tree controls apply across the area, and they are not equivalent. Ku-ring-gai and Willoughby operate two of the most restrictive regimes in New South Wales, and Ku-ring-gai in particular enforces them actively. Getting this wrong is expensive.
Protected bushland
Two critically endangered ecological communities survive here in fragments. Blue Gum High Forest once covered the shale ridge and now exists in only a few small remnants — Dalrymple-Hay Nature Reserve at St Ives is one of the best known. Sydney Turpentine-Ironbark Forest occupies the shale-sandstone transition through Ryde, Lane Cove and Pymble. Trees forming part of either community carry protection beyond ordinary council controls, and that applies on private land, not just in reserves.
The suburbs
Each page below covers the council, the ground, the species and the access problems specific to that suburb.
- Chatswood — Willoughby City Council, dense development and large back-garden exotics
- Hornsby — Hornsby Shire, bushland fringe, bushfire-prone land and steep gullies
- Lane Cove — Lane Cove Council, river gullies, stair access and turpentine remnants
- Willoughby — Willoughby City Council, Castlecrag and Northbridge bushland blocks
- Ryde — City of Ryde, subdivision pressure and Field of Mars bushland
- St Ives — Ku-ring-gai Council, big leafy blocks and Blue Gum High Forest
- Gordon — Ku-ring-gai Council, heritage streets and forty-metre blackbutts
- Pymble — Ku-ring-gai Council, large estates and Sheldon Forest
Outside the list
If your suburb is not above, ring anyway — Killara, Turramurra, Wahroonga, Roseville, Artarmon, Northbridge, Naremburn, Hunters Hill and West Pymble are all inside normal working range.
Ring (02) 9090 4915 with the suburb and what you are looking at. The services page covers what we do, and the cost guide explains how these local factors show up in a price.
Frequently asked questions
Which councils do you work across?
Ku-ring-gai, Willoughby, Hornsby, Lane Cove and the City of Ryde cover the regular footprint, with North Sydney and Mosman jobs taken as they come. Each council has its own tree controls and its own exemption thresholds, which is why the quote starts with your address rather than a price list.
Why does the suburb change the price so much?
Because it changes the job. A flat Ryde block with driveway access, a Pymble block with a forty-metre blackbutt behind the house, and a Lane Cove block falling into a gully with stair-only access are three different pieces of work on the same tree species. Soil, slope, access and council all move the number.
Do you charge a call-out fee to quote?
No. Quotes across the service area are free and carry no obligation, including the ones where the answer turns out to be that the tree is protected and should stay. If we think the job is not worth doing, we will tell you that rather than sell you something.