Tree removal in Keysborough: what's local
Swamp country
South Keysborough's farms were made by draining the Carrum Swamp between 1878 and the 1920s. The soil is sandy, and market gardens never did as well here as people hoped.
Where houses meet farms
North Keysborough became suburban in the late 1970s and 1980s, and housing spread north and east of the golf course after that. Council's planning scheme calls managing this urban to non-urban edge a challenge.
Red gums under pressure
Greater Dandenong says it has lost significant vegetation, River Red Gums in particular, and that the red gum has historic value to both Aboriginal people and European settlers.
Scarred trees
The planning scheme says a broad band of Aboriginal scarred trees runs between Keysborough and Lyndhurst, possibly the largest concentration of such sites in Victoria.
Reserves and fairways
The Roth Hetherington Australian flora reserve is one of Keysborough's parks, and Keysborough Golf Club borders the last farms in the south.
Tree removal in Keysborough: good to know
On a rural or semi-rural lot, a big old red gum is the tree to slow down for. Greater Dandenong's 2023 local law covers any tree 40 cm or more across at 1.4 metres, and on land of 0.4 hectares or more, Victoria's native vegetation clause (52.17) can apply too, even to a standing dead native tree 40 centimetres or more across at 1.3 metres.
In the main part of the Green Wedge, council's Vegetation Protection Overlay (VPO1) needs a permit to remove, destroy or lop native vegetation, with only the exceptions its schedule lists. It singles out River Red Gums as habitat that links up across the wedge.
If a trunk carries an old shaped scar where bark was once taken, tell council before anyone works on the tree. For clearing more than a tree or two, our land clearing in Melbourne page covers what changes.
Tree jobs you can do yourself in Keysborough
You can
- Wrap a tape around the trunk at 1.4 metres; dividing the reading by about three gives a rough width.
- Photograph the tree from several sides, including any scars, hollows or splits.
- Prune small branches you can reach from the ground with secateurs or loppers.
- Keep fallen limbs off driveways and paths.
Leave to an arborist
- Anything that needs a ladder, ropes or a chainsaw.
- The written report council asks for, with species, size, health and retention value.
- Judging whether a red gum's lean or hollow is a real risk.
- Taking a tree down in sections near a house, shed or fence.
Hiring an arborist in Keysborough
If it's a gum with real age on it, we'd get an arborist's assessment and ring council before anyone talks about removal. Old red gums can often be made safer with careful pruning, and the ones near the green wedge get a close look from council.