Tree Removal & Tree Services Hills District

A Hills block is not a 450 m² suburban block. Castle Hill and Baulkham Hills quarter-acres carry 25-metre Blackbutts and Sydney Blue Gums planted when the estates went in; Dural, Glenhaven, Kenthurst and Annangrove are acreage with remnant bushland, old orchard rows and whole fence lines of overgrown Camphor Laurel and Privet. The work is bigger, the timber is heavier and the distance from the road to the tree is longer. We bring a compact loader, a tracked chipper and a stump grinder that fit through a standard gate, and add a crane or an excavator when the job needs one, so the removal is finished in the days we quoted rather than dragged out by hand.

Most of what we do here is large removals, storm damage, clearing for sheds, pools, driveways and new builds, and bushfire-zone work on the fringes near the national park and the Cattai bush. The paperwork is a real part of the job in The Hills — the Shire protects its canopy hard — and we handle it in-house, with an AQF Level 5 report where the council wants one.

We are based in Mortdale, so the Hills is a scheduled run rather than a drop-in: we group Hills quotes and jobs into scheduled runs to keep the travel cost down, and storm call-outs come through the same 24/7 number as everywhere else.

Council: The Hills Shire Council protects most established trees and treats pruning seriously — removing more than 10% of a tree’s crown needs consent, not just removal. The maximum penalty for unlawful tree work runs to $1.1 million, so this is not the district for a quiet weekend chainsaw job. Declared priority weeds and trees grown for their fruit can usually go without consent. We lodge the Tree Management Application for you and attach the AQF Level 5 report where the council asks for one.

10/50: Parts of the Shire near bushland are in the 10/50 Vegetation Clearing entitlement area, which lets you clear trees within 10 m of a home and other vegetation within 50 m without council approval. The mapping changes street by street, and the rules have exclusions, so we check your exact address on the RFS online tool before we quote and put the result in writing. See our guide to the 10/50 rule.

Terrain and access: Hills blocks tend to be long, with the big trees at the back and a slope down to a creek line. Long drags mean more crew time, which is why we bring the loader and the tracked chipper to the tree rather than carrying the tree to the road. Where a crane can set up in the street or the driveway, a two-day dismantle becomes a one-day lift, and we price both options if it is close.