Bushfire clearing in Menai
The Sutherland bush fire plan, commencing 2025, names Menai-Barden Ridge as a focus area. It says the threat comes from the east and from the forest along the western side, including the Defence land at Holsworthy, and it records two significant fires there in the past 20 years, in 2002 and 2018.
The plan puts a large number of homes in its Highest risk category. So before summer, the trees closest to the house, the branches over the gutters and anything leaning towards the roof are the ones to look at first.
Tree lopping in Menai: what's local
Whose bush is behind your fence?
The plan lists 28 asset protection zones in Menai and Barden Ridge, looked after by council, Crown Lands, the Gandangara Local Aboriginal Land Council and the Office of Strategic Lands. An asset protection zone is a strip next to homes where the fuel is kept low. Trees in it aren't yours to cut, even when they shade your yard, so find the land manager and ask them.
Protected bush, at any size
The plan counts 13 threatened ecological communities, 20 threatened animal species and an area of regional koala significance in the focus area. The Shire's DCP protects remnant bushland plants at any size, so native bush on the edge of your block is likely to need council's approval.
Listed trees and sandstone
Council's heritage list, as drafted in 2020, includes the Moreton Bay Fig in the town centre between Carter Road and Old Illawarra Road, a Spotted Gum and an Angophora hybrid on St George Crescent, and sandstone escarpments in Georges River National Park.
Estate trees that grew up
Wikipedia dates Menai's housing development from the early 1980s. Trees planted with those first houses have had decades to grow, so it's worth checking what now overhangs the roof and the wire into the house.
Lines and wires
Ausgrid supplies the Shire. Your own tree near the service wire is yours to keep clear up to the boundary, and Ausgrid's crews handle the street lines. Report a branch on a line to Ausgrid.
Before clearing anything for fire safety
- Run the RFS online 10/50 tool for your address on the day you plan to clear, and save a copy of the result
- Under the code, tree clearing only reaches 10 metres from the home's external walls, and only on your own land
- On slopes over 18 degrees the code needs a geotechnical report, and vegetation can't be removed below the soil surface, so ask before any stump grinding
- The code never covers trees near power lines: talk to Ausgrid
- Anything the code doesn't cover, including the reserve behind you, goes to council or the land manager
Hiring an arborist in Menai
We'd walk around the house and note every tree within 10 metres, run the RFS tool that day and photograph what we found. Anything outside the code, or on public land, we'd take to council or the land manager. And if someone offered to lop the lot, we'd ask for clearance pruning instead, because lopped limbs tend to sprout bushy regrowth, which is the opposite of what a fire edge needs.