Mardi
Tree removal in Mardi
Tree removal, pruning and stump grinding in Mardi, from bush blocks on rough, steep ground to gardens near the old Woodbury's Inn site.
Tree work in Mardi
Old inn plantings and high-risk bush
The trees and palms planted around Woodbury's Inn, which stood on the site from around 1866, have outlasted it, and the State Heritage Inventory says many of the trees date from before 1900. Trees well past a century old can hide decay behind a sound-looking trunk, so work near them starts with a careful inspection, and at a listed site the heritage listing shapes what can be pruned, braced or removed.
Council upgraded two sections of fire trail in Mardi in November 2016, saying the suburb has been assessed as a high risk area for bushfires and that this was why those trails came first. On a block that backs onto the bush, the work that matters is limbs over the roof and gutters, dead wood near the walls and thick growth that could carry fire up to the house.
Services in Mardi
Cone drop, fuel and rough ground
Tree removal
Big old exotics, bunya pines and camphor laurels among them, taken apart from the top down so nothing heavy falls uncontrolled.
Tree pruning
Deadwood cut out of gums and old garden trees, which in a high risk area for bushfires counts as fuel as well as a hazard.
Stump grinding
Stumps ground below the surface where a grinder can be walked in, which on a steep block is worked out before the quote.
How it works
From the first message to a written quote
The council question is settled before any price, and nothing is booked until you have said yes to a quote in writing.
- 1
Tell us what the tree is doing
Where it stands, what it is close to and what you would like done about it.
- 2
A contractor comes to see it
A tree contractor who covers your suburb looks at the tree, the access and what is underneath it.
- 3
The council question is answered
Height, trunk size, distance from the house and the species decide whether a permit or an exemption applies.
- 4
You get it in writing
Scope, timber, stump and date on one page, and nothing is booked until you have said yes.
Mardi questions
A listed park, heavy cones and rugged slopes
Are the old trees at the inn site protected?
Yes, as a heritage item. Schedule 5 of the Central Coast LEP 2022 lists Woodbury's Inn Park as a local heritage item across two lots, and none of council's DCP exemptions applies to a tree that is or forms part of a heritage item. Pruning or removing one of those trees, or digging in its root zone, is a question for council before it is a job for a contractor.
What makes the old inn planting hard to work near?
Its species, mostly. The heritage listing names Senegal date palm, southern magnolia and bunya bunya pine in the planting, with camphor laurels, other palms and coral trees. Bunya pines drop very heavy cones, camphor laurels grow huge crowns and roots, and coral trees shed brittle limbs, so a job beneath any of them is planned around what might fall.
How is timber got out of the steepest bush blocks?
Often by hand or by winch. Council's release on its new fire trails says they cross some of the most rugged terrain in the Mardi area, and slopes like that can keep a truck, a chipper or an elevated platform well away from the tree. The tree is climbed and taken down in pieces, and the timber is carried or winched out to where the machines can reach it.
