Tree Removal
Dead, damaged and badly sited trees taken out — including tight Queenslander access and steep gully blocks.
Learn more →Brisbane's storm season is the whole story
The severe thunderstorm season runs from roughly October through March, and Brisbane sits in one of the more active corridors in Australia for damaging hail and downbursts. November is historically the bad month: the 16 November 2008 storm that tore through The Gap and surrounding suburbs, and the 27 November 2014 hailstorm that crossed the CBD, are both still the reference points people use locally when they talk about storm damage.
What those events do to trees is specific. A downburst does not bend trees over like a cyclone — it slams straight down and out, snapping trunks mid-height and stripping whole sides off crowns. Large hail shreds foliage and leaves a tree that looks half-dead for a season. Saturated ground from a wet week beforehand is what turns a survivable gust into a root plate lifting out of the soil.
What make-safe means
The first visit is not the clean-up. It is about removing the immediate danger: cutting weight off a limb resting on a roof so it stops moving, releasing stored tension in split branches, clearing a driveway so vehicles can get out, and dropping anything hung up overhead that will come down on its own later.
A storm-damaged tree is not a normal tree. Split limbs hold enormous stored energy, partly detached branches shift when touched, and a root plate that has lifted can drop back without warning. That is why the sequence matters, and why chainsaw injuries spike in the days after a storm when homeowners start cutting up their own fallen trees.
Who to ring, in order
- Powerlines involved, anywhere in the picture: Energex, 13 19 62. Do not approach. Do not let anyone else approach.
- People trapped or injured: 000.
- Structural damage, roof open to weather, no immediate danger: SES, 132 500, for make-safe and tarping.
- Then: a tree contractor and your insurer, in either order.
Nothing on this list is a tree job first. Tree contractors are not licensed to work on the network side of a powerline and will not go near one.
After the first 48 hours
Once the site is safe, the rest is ordinary work: the damaged tree either comes down as a removal, or it gets assessed and pruned back into a sound structure if enough of it survived. The stump, when it is time, gets ground out. Storm-damaged trees that look fine often are not — a tree that lost a third of its crown to hail is under real stress and should be looked at again the following winter.
Reducing the odds next year
Most storm failures are predictable. Dead limbs, dense unthinned crowns, previously topped trees with weak regrowth, and species with brittle wood over a roof. Deadwooding and crown thinning in the winter dry are cheap, uneventful, and the single most useful thing you can do before October. The suburb notes on the service areas page cover which parts of Brisbane get hit hardest and why.
More services
Explore our other services
Tree Lopping & Pruning
Crown thinning, deadwooding and clearance pruning to Australian Standard AS 4373, not topping.
Learn more →Stump Grinding
Stumps ground 200-300mm below grade so the ground can be turfed, planted or paved.
Learn more →Stump Removal
Full stump and root-plate extraction where a slab, pool or new footing is going in.
Learn more →Palm Tree Removal
Cocos, foxtail and Alexandra palms de-nutted, tidied or taken out entirely.
Learn more →Land Clearing
Block clearing and vegetation management for builds, subdivisions and overgrown acreage.
Learn more →
FAQs
Frequently asked questions
What should I do first if a tree falls on my house?
Get everyone out of the affected part of the building and stay away from anything touching wires. If powerlines are involved, treat every line as live and call Energex on 13 19 62 immediately. If people are trapped or injured, call 000. For structural damage without immediate danger, the SES on 132 500 is the number for tarping and making safe. Then call a tree contractor and your insurer.
How fast can someone get there after a storm?
It depends entirely on whether the storm hit only you or hit the whole city. An isolated failure on a calm day can often be looked at the same day. After a widespread event like a November hail line, every crew in South East Queensland is booked and jobs are triaged by danger — trees on occupied buildings and across access first, fence and garden damage later, sometimes days later.
Does insurance cover storm tree damage?
Usually, for the damage to insured property, but policies differ and many treat removing a fallen tree that has not damaged anything as the owner's cost. Photograph everything before it moves, keep the written scope and the invoice, and ring your insurer before authorising a full clean-up. Emergency make-safe work is generally covered even when the rest is argued about later.
Can a crew work at night or in the rain?
Make-safe work sometimes has to happen at night, but it is limited to what can be done safely with lighting. Climbing a damaged tree in rain and wind is how people get killed, so a crew that arrives, secures the area and returns at first light is making the right call, not stalling. Storm-damaged trees carry unpredictable stored tension in split limbs.
Free, no-obligation