City of Banyule
Tree controls in Banyule
Banyule is structured differently from its neighbours and it trips people up. The local law protects trees during building works, not from removal. If you want to take a tree out in Banyule, the control you are dealing with is the planning scheme.
Ivanhoe, Ivanhoe East, Heidelberg, Eaglemont, Rosanna, Viewbank, Montmorency, Greensborough
At a glance
- Local law
- Banyule Community Local Law 2025, commenced 16 April 2025. It revoked General Local Law No. 1
- What the local law does NOT do
- It does not prohibit an owner removing a significant tree on their own land
- What it does do
- Clause 3.13 lets an Authorised Officer direct a security bond to safeguard vegetation during building works, including on adjoining land
- Clause 3.14
- Builders must establish and maintain a Tree Protection Zone around Council trees in the nature strip
- Penalties
- 10 penalty units for individuals and 20 for corporations, on each of 3.13 and 3.14
- The actual removal control
- ESO Schedule 4, Significant Trees and Areas of Vegetation. A permit is required for trees specified in the table to the clause
- Basis
- Schedule listed, not threshold based. If your tree is not in the ESO4 table it is not caught by ESO4
- Critical root zone
- ESO4 defines it as extending no less than five metres beyond the drip line. That is not the AS 4970 calculation
- Report trigger
- Required where 4 or more trees are involved, any tree is on the significant tree register, or the work is development related
- Permit fees
- Single tree $233.10, two to four trees $466.20, five or more $1,537.00, single tree pruning $116.50
- Canopy targets
- 30% across all suburbs by 2050, with no loss in suburbs already above the target
Drawn from Council's published material as at August 2026. Councils update without notice, so confirm anything you are relying on for a lodgement.
Two registers, and only one of them triggers a permit
Banyule keeps a significant tree register in two different places and they do different jobs. The ESO4 table in the planning scheme is the one that triggers a planning permit. Schedule 3 to the Community Local Law 2025 is a separate list attached to the local law. Do not conflate them, and do not assume a tree on one is on the other.
Amendment C119bany, gazetted 13 October 2022, added a further 94 trees to ESO4 permanently. Check the current table on VicPlan rather than a cached PDF, because the copy Council hosts appears to predate that amendment.
Banyule's published guidance still mandates the superseded standard
Council's tree protection page states that "Australian Standard AS4970/2009 is the primary guidance for preparing arboricultural reports". Its Tree Management Framework cites the same edition, and Council hosts a full copy of the 2009 standard on its own website as a planning reference document.
AS 4970 was revised in 2025. The zone calculations did not change, but the terminology and the reporting structure did. The workable answer is to report to the current standard while satisfying the document Council names, with the equivalence stated in one line the first time each term appears. Handing Banyule a report it cannot map onto its own reference is how you buy a request for further information.
The five metre drip line rule is not a TPZ
ESO4 exempts works outside the critical root zone, which it defines as extending no less than five metres beyond the drip line. That is a Banyule specific definition and it is not the AS 4970 calculation, which sets the notional root zone from DSH.
On a big Eaglemont oak the two give very different areas, and which one applies depends on what you are asking. For the ESO4 exemption, Council's definition governs. For whether the tree survives your works, the standard's calculation is the one that answers the question. A report worth paying for gives both and says which is which.
Council pages still cite a law revoked over a year ago
Banyule's tree pages refer to enforcement under "General Local Law No. 1". That instrument was revoked on 16 April 2025 when the Community Local Law 2025 commenced. The tree permit pages also make no mention of Clause 52.37 at all, and Council's only 52.37 material is a news item from 1 October 2025 which omits the 1.4 m measurement height, says "front boundary" where the clause says narrowest street frontage, and names no zones.
The bond nobody can price
Clause 3.13 lets an Authorised Officer direct a builder to pay a security bond against damage to vegetation, including vegetation on adjoining land. It is discretionary and there is no published schedule. That is worth raising with Council early rather than discovering it as a condition, because it is unbudgeted by definition.
No net loss at suburb level
Banyule's Urban Forest Strategy 2023 to 2033 targets 30% canopy across all suburbs by 2050, with no loss in suburbs already exceeding the target. That last clause matters in Ivanhoe East, Eaglemont and Viewbank. It is a no net loss commitment at suburb level, not simply a growth target, and it is a reasonable thing for a council arborist to hold an application against.
What I do in Banyule
Tree Removal Report
Council has asked for an arborist report before it will consider removing your tree. This is that report, and it is usually the whole job.
ResidentialArboricultural Impact Assessment
The report councils ask for when your works reach a tree. Every tree assessed, every zone calculated to AS 4970:2025, every encroachment justified.
DevelopmentClause 52.37 Canopy Tree Report
The provision that landed in September 2025 and caught most of the industry flat. Assessment, permit triggers and replacement canopy strategy.
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Working on a site in Banyule?
Send the address and whatever plans you have. I will tell you which controls apply, what reports the permit path needs, and what each one costs, within one business day.