Tree Lopping, Removal, Pruning and Mulching in the Dandenong Ranges
Sherbrooke Tree Service is available to deal with urgent and emergency tree work in the Dandenong Ranges and Eastern Suburbs as storms hit the eastern suburbs of Melbourne.
Call 0428 383 677
After chipping branches in The Basin on Mt Dandenong, we came back to Cockatoo and fell some trees from a house renovation.
The small trees we felled in Cockatoo were just the right size to fit into the backyard. When falling trees it is really important to understand where they are leaning, and how the tree will behave as it departs the stump.
On many of the trees I fell today, I used rope and tackle to ensure that in the event of a mistake, or failure in the hinge, the tree would still fall in the intended direction. Ensuring that good distance is made from the tree by the use of escape routes is essential. Cockatoo, like Emerald, Avonsleigh, Clematis, Belgrave and other towns in Cardinia Shire – has a vast mix of tree species. Sometimes the tree can be felled, other times the tree must be climbed and lopped.
The material from the presentation is included below.
The program hasn’t been updated since I wrote it, normally before this kind of thing would be shared it would go through fairly vigorous bug testing.
If I get some time to neaten it up I will fix some of the major bugs. I will point out some major things to consider:
Apart from that, the formula, presentation, source code and software are provided under a create commons licence. To find out what that means visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/au/deed.en
We had a mature Mountain Ash to fall recently in Sherbrooke. We had a set of tree jacks to test, so we set them up and tipped it over.
The tree was completely dead, and was standing up quite straight – wedging isn’t really practical in this situation.
Click on the pictures to see a larger version. We do tree removals all throughout Cardinia and the Yarra Ranges.
Whilst many of our photos are from Sherbrooke, Olinda, Mount Dandenong, Ferny Creek, Sassafras and Menzies Creek, we also work in the surrounding suburbs of
Emerald, Cockatoo, Avonsleigh, Clematis, Belgrave, Monbulk, Kallista, Upwey, Ferntree Gully, Tecoma, Yellingbo.
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We service all of the Dandenong Ranges in the Shire of Yarra Ranges.
Some of our services include
Contact us for more information!
A large Oak tree in Mt Dandenong was damaged during a severe storm. One half of it landed on the owners property, the other half of the tree landed on the neighbours.
Sherbrooke Tree Service was engaged to perform the tree removal. Our new 8″ Rayco Chipper was used to create a mulch for the customer and the trunk was cut up for firewood.
Our wood chipper backs up to the fallen Oak tree
Complex rigging and storm damage works are an area of speciality for Sherbrooke Tree Service. The nature of the large tree’s in the Dandenong Ranges coupled with the rigging equipment we’ve accumulated in over 30 years of servicing the area means we are efficient and safe in handling emergency tree works, storm damage clean-ups and complex tree rigging tasks.
Our new Rayco mulcher has arrived and it got a test run at One Tree Hill on Mt Dandenong. We fell two tree’s then chipped the heads and branches.
The 8″ chipper can be towed behind a standard four wheel drive, and is fantastic for jobs where there are access limitations.
The mulch is produces is fine and consistent, fantastic to handle.
Our new chipper, chipping the tree branches back into the forest.
The two tree’s were part of a fire break easement that we were helping to clear. The wood was put into the forest using our excavator with the log grab.
By using our excavator on jobs like this, the manual, back breaking work of cutting up all the wood and rolling it aside is forgotten – allowing us to be more efficient and safer.
Graeme carrys a log down the hill while rolling another with the excavator with the log grab.
We hired one of Red Roo’s 730X chippers for some work we were doing in the Alfred Nicolas Gardens which is part of the Dandenong Ranges. Jim Kerr from Red Roo kindly took some video of the chipper doing what it does best.
We were back on Mt Dandenong today. Tree lopping for something different. A few photos of PNF’s 18M travel tower.
PnFs 18M travel tower
The 18M travel tower next to the 160M tower
Ace Tree had their chipper out.
Deciding which tree to chip next
A large Eucalyptus regnans out the front of William Ricketts sanctuary needed to be removed. William Ricketts Sanctuary is located in Melbourne’s south-east in the Dandenong ranges, and is managed by Parks Victoria.
Graeme accesses the tree and rigs a branch for lowering.
Lowering the branches using a variety of techniques.
Similar to Grants Picnic Ground removal, Graeme hangs the tree upside down and then uses a crane from Campbell Cranes to lift the long limbs off.
Ace Tree and Ace Tower were there on the day helping us out with their chipper and 60m Tower. Once the limbs were removed, the heads were felled and the log sections lifted.
This climbing video is also on youtube in HD!
Graeme descends onto a dead and rotten tree so that he can safely work on it. After lopping out the head, the rest of the tree is blocked down.
When the tree we are removing is too dangerous to climb or be attached to normally, tree loppers will often gain access from another high point. This particular Mountain Ash was over the top of a high visitation walking track, and was one of several dead Eucalyptus regnans that needed to be removed for public safety.
This large dead Eucalyptus regnans was threatening a viewing platform over the top of Olinda Falls in Yarra Ranges Shire. The tree had a bee’s nest, and had a thin shell at the base which had been burnt out in a previous bushfire. After using explosives to safely remove the large limbs, Graeme then fell the head away from the viewing platform into the forest.
The large dead Mountain Ash seen in this video was hanging precariously over the newly built Olinda Falls viewing platform. In particularly, three large limbs were pulling a lot of the trees weight.
At the base of the tree, the stump was so severely burnt out that only a small semi-circle shell around 80mm thick held the tree. This was extremely brittle and extended nearly 40′ above, where it formed back into a chimney.
Around 120′ from ground level was a large bee’s nest. The risk that was facing Parks Victoria meant something needed to be done to mitigate the hazard so as to allow visitors to use the platform as expected.
In this situation Graeme elected to pre-rig the three limbs, and then cut them with explosives. This had a number of safety advantages;
- No-one needed to be under the tree as it was shock loaded with the limb being cut-off
- Graeme didn’t need to be in the tree as it could potentially pull out of the ground, or snap off above him as the tree was loaded up by the branches
- The limbs were so long that traversing out and lopping was not an option given the tree’s condition
- Long term exposure at 80′ was likely to attract unwanted attention from the Bee’s nest
The video shows one limb being severed with explosives, and then being caught on rope.
A few pics from the Grants Picnic Ground Removals. Quite a number of mature Eucalyptus regnans were removed from the picnic area for public safety.
In the main entrance to Sherbrooke Forest, there was a large Eucalyptus regnans which had three 120′ long branches overhanging the car parking area. Graeme removed these by lopping each and catching it onto itself in order to protect the facilities below. To do this safely, Graeme needed to be able to egress from the departing limb and stay clear of the spar. The video shown is the first of three.