Which rules apply in Salisbury?
This is the City of Salisbury in Adelaide's north, not the Brisbane suburb. Tree rules here come from South Australia's Planning, Development and Infrastructure Act 2016, through the Regulated and Significant Tree Overlay, which covers metropolitan Adelaide. The council decides applications under that state system.
The size thresholds dropped on 16 May 2024, so advice from before then can be wrong for your tree.
Regulated or significant?
| Regulated tree | Significant tree | |
|---|---|---|
| Single trunk | 1 m or more around | 2 m or more around |
| Several trunks | Trunks totalling 1 m or more, averaging at least 310 mm | Trunks totalling 2 m or more, averaging at least 625 mm |
| Where to measure | 1 m above natural ground level | 1 m above natural ground level |
| How it's defined | By trunk size | By trunk size, or declared individually in the Planning and Design Code |
What counts as damaging a tree?
The Act's tree-damaging activity is broad: killing, removing, severing branches or trunks, ring barking, topping or lopping, and any other substantial damage. Excessive pruning can count too.
Pruning only stays outside the approval process in narrow cases: no more than 30% of the crown, for dead or diseased wood or branches that pose a risk, and at least 5 years after the last such prune.
Some species and situations sit outside the rules, but read them closely. The 3 m distance from a house or in-ground pool doesn't cover Eucalyptus, Corymbia, Angophora or Willow Myrtle, so a big gum beside the house still needs checking with council.
If a Salisbury tree is an immediate danger
Call 000 if anyone is at risk, and the SES for storm damage to the home. SA law allows urgent work to protect a person or building, with the least damage possible, but council must be told within 28 days and an application lodged afterwards. Photograph the tree before and after, and let an arborist decide what has to come off.
Getting approval in Salisbury
Measure the trunk
Wrap a tape around the trunk 1 metre above natural ground. For several trunks, add them up and work out the average.
Contact the council
Ask the City of Salisbury how to lodge and what to include for your tree. Its regulated trees page is linked at the top of this page.
Expect conditions
Councils can approve, approve with conditions, or refuse. Conditions can require replacement trees or a payment into an urban tree fund.
Know the appeal window
If it's refused, you can appeal to the Environment, Resources and Development Court within 2 months of the decision.
What replacement planting looked like in one Salisbury decision
On 23 September 2025, Salisbury's Council Assessment Panel approved a Mawson Lakes primary school development that removed one regulated and one significant tree. The condition: plant replacements within 12 months, 2 for the regulated tree and 3 for the significant one.
The replacements couldn't be certain listed species, or be planted within 3 metres of a dwelling or in-ground swimming pool. A payment into the urban trees fund was allowed instead of planting, made before development started.
Neighbours generally aren't notified of a regulated tree application. The exception is a tree on council land.
Our suggestion
We'd measure at 1 metre before anything else. If the trunk is anywhere near 1 metre around, we'd treat the tree as regulated and talk to council before an arborist starts, because SA's exclusions are narrow and easy to misread. And we'd plan where replacement trees could go, since that's a likely condition.
Want an arborist to look at it?
Tell us the job and your postcode, and a local arborist calls you to talk it through.