Tree Lopping, Removal, Pruning and Mulching in the Dandenong Ranges

From the Blog

Jul
26

Trivect Presentation

Posted by admin at 12:12 pm

The material from the presentation is included below.

Trivect Presentation Slides

Trivect Software

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:

  • Don’t use angles outside of -90 and 90 degrees. Apart from being completely pointless, in a practical sense it would be dangerous. One day I’ll write some restrictions that stop those kind of numbers being entered
  • Have a good think about what the program is telling you to do.
    • Is it realistic?
    • Will my high points handle that kind of load?
    • Are those vertical components what I would expect?

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

 

1 Comment | Read more
May
11

ISA 2011 Sydney

Posted by admin at 3:45 pm

Months away from this years ISA presentation in Sydney, all is going ahead as planned.

As stated earlier we’ll be presenting on Trivect rigging and “Planning for maintenance, not removals”.

Trivect has generated a surprising amount of interest and dialogue. Perhaps the biggest question has been “What is Trivect?”

Trivect is a rigging system that uses three pre-tensioned lines to lower a load. When the load is separated from the tree, the system is designed so that the load remains stationary.

This allows for a very high level of control.

No Comments | Read more
Mar
04

Cockatoo Tree Removal Lowering Small Trees

Posted by admin at 5:57 pm

Removed a few trees at a property in Cockatoo earlier this week. One of the trees we lowered in one big piece.

The tree was a reasonably small tree, leaning over a house. With a suitable high point, it can often be more efficient to set large lines and lower the tree in a single piece.

It is safer because the climber spends less time in the tree, ground staff are not obligated to be underneath works.

This kind of rigging is fairly typical of tree work, especially in situations where simply falling the tree isn’t an option.

No Comments | Read more
Feb
27

Emergency Tree Work

Posted by admin at 12:36 am

A major part of our business is advance stabilisation work for customers that have suffered storm damage or sudden branch failure.

We have an armada of heavy lifting, winches and technical rigging equipment to service trees that pose an immediate hazard to life or property.

After heavy wind and rain, trees can often fail in a variety of places. In most cases these are an expected part of the forest life cycle.

Unfortunately, other times these may be a significant asset or feature to a home owner.

When the tree fails, often the home owner will need to assess the hazards and potential costs of further degeneration.

While these decisions are being made, any immediate hazards needs to neutralised so that decisions are not made under pressure and haste.

We have access rigging devices such as heavy blocks and tackles, jacks, cables, zero stretch ropes, lowering devices through to cranes, helicopters, excavators, harvesters.

Comments Off | Read more
Dec
24

Opposing Pendulums

Posted by admin at 10:52 pm

OPPOSING PENDULUMS

When the opposing pendulums system was developed, there was no literature or evidence that such a system had been developed ever before. Graeme wrote a paper on the successes of the system and submitted it to the “Journal of Arboriculture“, however it was later published in ArborAge magazine in the 2000 October/November edition (Vol. 5, No. 3). You can download the abridged ArborAge Opposing Pendulums Article.

We regularly present this rigging system in advanced rigging seminars as a potential solution to difficult tree removals. If you are interested in having this system presented at your next arboriculture conference, rigging conference or company training day, check out our seminars page.

No Comments | Read more
Nov
11

Olinda Falls Blasting

Posted by admin at 1:13 am

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.

1 Comment | Read more
Sep
13

First Limb, Main Entrance

Posted by admin at 12:26 am

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.

No Comments | Read more