We get asked this on almost every quote across Meadow Heights, Broadmeadows and Greenvale, and the honest answer is it depends on the tree, not the suburb. Hume and the other northern councils regulate removal through the local planning scheme rather than a blanket rule, so a few specific things decide whether you need sign-off first.

Worth saying upfront: this is general guidance based on how these rules usually work, not a substitute for checking with your own council. Overlays and exemptions get updated, and the final call always sits with them.

Nature strip trees are council property even though they sit outside your front fence, and you can't remove or prune them yourself no matter how much they're bothering you — any work on them has to go through council. A tree fully inside your title boundary is assessed differently, under the planning scheme rather than as council-owned infrastructure.

Plenty of properties across the north sit inside a Vegetation Protection Overlay or Significant Landscape Overlay. If yours does, removing a tree above a certain size or species can need a planning permit even though it's on your own land. Your council's planning scheme mapping tool will show you in a couple of minutes whether an overlay applies to your address.

Storm damage, disease, or a tree that's a real risk of coming down on a structure — most councils have an exemption for this. In practice they'll want it backed up: photos at minimum, and often a written arborist assessment if the tree also happens to sit inside an overlay.

Most overlays exist to protect mature, established trees rather than young plantings, so there's usually a trunk circumference or height below which a permit isn't needed at all. That threshold isn't the same everywhere, so it's one of the things worth confirming rather than assuming.

Look your address up on your council's planning scheme map to see if an overlay applies, then call their planning department if you're still not sure. It takes a few minutes and can save you an infringement notice or a fight with council later. When we're quoting somewhere we're not certain is exempt, we flag it and help work out whether a permit's needed before anyone touches a chainsaw — it's just part of doing the job properly.

Removing a protected tree without checking first isn't a small risk — councils do issue infringements for it, and sometimes require replacement planting on top. Five minutes on the planning scheme map beats finding out the hard way.

Not sure where your tree stands? Our tree removal team can take a look, help figure out whether a permit applies, and quote the job properly either way.