Hedge trimming in Melbourne: what's local
Hedges on significant tree registers
Boroondara's significant trees come from its Significant Tree Study, and a listing can be a single tree, an avenue or a hedge. Bayside's Significant Tree Register lists 105 trees, rows or hedges, and its permit covers cutting, trimming, lopping or pruning anything listed.
Tall screens can be canopy trees
A row of conifers or lilly pillies grown as a screen is still a row of trees. Under clause 52.37, any tree at least 5 metres tall with an average canopy diameter of at least 4 metres is a canopy tree, and lopping one in a residential zone can need a permit.
Hedges over council land
Banyule says that where hedges overgrow onto council land, it may act under its General Local Law No. 1. A hedge spilling over the footpath is one of the commonest reasons councils write to owners.
The neighbour's side
In Victoria you can cut back what crosses your boundary, at your own cost, but the clippings stay your neighbour's property and go back unless you agree otherwise. You need their consent to go onto their land to trim.
How hedge trimming works in Melbourne
Regular light trims keep a hedge dense. Leave it for years, and getting it back to size means cutting into bare wood, which some species recover from and others don't. One lilly pilly, Syzygium smithii, responds well to pruning and can be kept as a tall hedge.
For tall hedges, the job is mostly about access: getting to the top safely without damaging the hedge or the fence. That's where an arborist or a hedging crew with the right platforms earns their money. Our national hedge trimming page covers the basics.
Hedge trimming in Melbourne: what you can do yourself
You can
- Trim what you can reach from the ground with hand shears or secateurs.
- Keep the footpath side clear for people walking past.
- Talk to your neighbour before trimming their side or going onto their land.
Leave to an arborist
- Hedges too tall to reach from the ground.
- Anything growing near the service line or street power lines.
- Hard cutbacks of tall screens that could count as lopping, and listed hedges.
Questions to ask about hedge trimming in Melbourne
- The finished height and width
- Whether both sides and the top are included
- Who has asked the neighbour, if their side is being cut
- How clippings are handled, and where they go
- Whether anything needs a council check first
Hiring an arborist for hedge trimming in Melbourne
We'd check the council register first if the street is old and leafy, then agree the height with the neighbour before anyone starts. For a tall screen that's well over 5 metres, we'd ask the council whether a hard cut counts as lopping a canopy tree. A quick check now beats a notice later.