The northside is three different places
Lumping Brisbane's northern half together hides how different the jobs are. There are three distinct zones, and the quote changes with each.
The range foothills. The Gap, Ferny Grove and the western edge of Ashgrove, running up against the D'Aguilar Range and Enoggera Reservoir. Very large native eucalypts, steep gully blocks, bushfire exposure, and almost no machine access past the house.
The old timber belt. Ashgrove, Mitchelton, Newmarket, Windsor and Wilston. High-set Queenslanders on narrow blocks with single side paths, mature jacarandas and camphors, and street trees that belong to council.
The post-war flats. Chermside, Aspley, Wavell Heights, Nundah, Stafford and out to Sandgate. Wide, flat, regular blocks with real driveways. This is the easiest ground in the northern half of the city to work on, and the pricing shows it.
The creek corridors
Kedron Brook, Downfall Creek, Enoggera Creek and Cabbage Tree Creek run across the northside and structure a lot of the vegetation. Council parkland, revegetation plantings and habitat overlays follow them, which means properties backing onto a corridor need their boundary and their vegetation status settled before any removal is booked. They are also the source of most of the weed pressure — camphor laurel, Chinese elm, privet and cat's claw creeper all push out of the creek lines into back yards.
Species that keep crews busy up here
Camphor laurel and Chinese elm for removals. Jacaranda and poinciana for brittleness over roofs. Mango for size in post-war back yards. Large spotted gums, tallowwoods and ironbarks through the foothills, where deadwooding matters because of summer branch drop. Cocos palms across every suburb built or landscaped between about 1970 and 1995 — see the palm page. Hoop pines standing well above the roof lines in the older streets.
Storm season on the northside
Cells arriving from the west and north-west hit the foothills and run down through the northern suburbs, which puts The Gap, Ashgrove and the creek corridors regularly in the firing line. The 16 November 2008 downburst is the reference event locally, and November remains the month people watch.
The preparation is unglamorous and cheap: deadwood the big trees, thin dense crowns, clear limbs off roofs and out of gutters, and do it between May and September rather than in the week the first warning is issued. When it has already happened, the emergency and storm damage page sets out the sequence and the realistic wait times.
Getting a number
Access varies so much across these suburbs that a phone estimate is close to meaningless. The cost guide explains what actually moves a quote, the council rules page covers the checks that apply before a protected tree is touched, and the service areas page has the detailed suburb notes. If you would rather just describe the tree, use the contact page or call (07) 3132 0074.
Frequently asked questions
Which northside suburbs are covered?
Broadly everything north of the river: Ashgrove, The Gap, Ferny Grove, Mitchelton, Everton Park, Stafford, Chermside, Aspley, Wavell Heights, Nundah, Sandgate, Bracken Ridge and the surrounding streets, plus the southern Moreton Bay suburbs. Ask if your suburb is not named, because the list is illustrative rather than exhaustive.
Why does the northside have so much storm damage?
Because storm cells frequently track in from the west and north-west, hit the D'Aguilar foothills and run down across the northern suburbs. The Gap, Ashgrove and the northern creek corridors carry a lot of large mature trees directly in that path, over housing stock that includes plenty of older timber roofs.
Is the northside cheaper to work in than the west?
It depends entirely on which part. Flat post-war suburbs like Chermside, Aspley and Wavell Heights have good machine access and are among the cheaper parts of Brisbane for tree work. The foothill suburbs at The Gap and the older Queenslander streets in Ashgrove are the opposite, because everything comes out by hand.