How much does an arborist report cost in Melbourne?

Published cost guides put a Melbourne arborist report for one or two trees between $450 and $700, and multi tree development reports between $800 and $2,500. Every job here is quoted individually and fixed in writing before work starts, with the quote back within one business day. There is no charge to quote.

What qualification does a council require on an arborist report?

Most Victorian councils require a minimum of AQF Level 5, the Diploma of Arboriculture. A report from an underqualified author can be refused on that basis alone regardless of its content.

What changed in AS 4970:2025?

The 2025 revision separated the calculated zone from the applied one. What used to be the calculated TPZ is now the Notional Root Zone (NRZ), and the TPZ is the area actually protected on site as determined by the project arborist. DBH became DSH, Diameter at Standard Height, still measured at 1.4 metres. Encroachment is now assessed as a proportion of NRZ area.

When did Clause 52.37 canopy trees start?

Amendment VC289 introduced Clause 52.37 to all Victorian planning schemes on 15 September 2025. It applies in most residential zones and can require a planning permit to remove a canopy tree even where no other permit is triggered.

Consulting arboriculture · Melbourne

Tree reports that get through council the first time.

Most reports that get sent back are not wrong. They are unanswerable. A thorough inventory that never quite says what the proposed slab does to tree seven leaves a planner with nothing to assess. I write the other kind, to the current standard, with the fee agreed before I start.

Request a fixed quote How quoting works

Quotes back within one business day. Reports to AS 4970:2025 and Clause 52.37 as it now stands, not as it stood in 2009.

Looking up the mossy trunk of a mature eucalypt into the canopy — Assessment starts by looking up. Most of what decides a tree's future is in the crown and the root zone, not the bit at eye level.

How it works

A fixed number, back within one business day

Quote turnaround1 business day

Residential inspectionwithin 5 days

Feefixed, in writing

Council queriesincluded

No charge to quote, and none if it turns out you do not need a report. How quoting works.

AQF 5Diploma of Arboriculture

7+ yrsClimbing and industry experience

AS 4970:2025Current standard, not the 2009 edition

$2MProfessional indemnity insured

1 dayTurnaround on quotes

The problem

A request for further information costs six weeks and the client's confidence

Almost all of them come from the same short list of gaps, and none of those gaps are about arboriculture. They are about what got left out of the writing up.

Impact never actually stated

A thorough description of the trees that never says what the works do to each one. The planner has nothing to assess, so it goes back. Every retained tree needs a sentence connecting the works to that tree and stating the consequence.

The neighbour's tree left out

A tree over the fence whose root zone reaches into your site is squarely in scope, and that neighbour is often the objector. Leaving it out looks like either an oversight or an omission.

Protection written as a generic note

“Standard tree protection in accordance with AS 4970” gives a planner nothing to condition. Where the fence goes, at what radius, when it goes up, who supervises, what may happen inside it. Specific enough to be enforced is the bar.

You are not really paying for a report. You are paying for a permit that issues without a request for further information.

Services

What I do, and what it costs

Ten services covering a project from site acquisition through to sign-off, all quoted fixed before any work starts.

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.

Residential

Arboricultural 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.

Development

Clause 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.

Residential · Planning

Preliminary Tree Assessment

Before you draw. What is on site, what is protected, what will constrain the footprint, and what it will cost you to keep.

Before you design

Tree Protection Management Plan

The TPMP councils condition, structured to AS 4970:2025. Specific enough for a planner to enforce and a site foreman to follow.

Development

Root & Infrastructure Investigation

Non destructive investigation of what the roots are actually doing, and whether the tree is really the cause. Sewers, footings, paving, retaining walls.

Investigation

Arboricultural Supervision

Named on the permit, on site at the hold points, signing off the stages. AS 4970:2025 expects an arborist across the whole project.

On site

Construction Monitoring

Scheduled attendance across the build, with the stage records that close out tree conditions on the permit without an argument.

On site

Tree Risk Assessment

A defensible position on a tree you are worried about. ISA TRAQ methodology, written so the reasoning holds up if anyone later asks why you did what you did.

TRAQ qualified

Tree Protection Zone Advice

A written answer on NRZ, SRZ and TPZ for a specific tree and a specific proposal, when you do not yet need a full report.

Written advice

New provision

Clause 52.37 caught a lot of people out

Amendment VC289 introduced Clause 52.37 Canopy Trees to every Victorian planning scheme on 15 September 2025. It can require a planning permit to remove a tree on a residential site where nothing else would have triggered one.

A tree is caught if it meets all three of: more than 5 m tall, trunk circumference over 0.5 m measured at 1.4 m, and a canopy at least 4 m across. It applies in most residential zones but not Low Density Residential.

The trap is the boundary tree. A canopy tree with any part of its trunk within 6 m of the narrowest street frontage or 4.5 m of the rear boundary loses the exemptions that would otherwise apply on a site with an existing dwelling.

The full decision tree, written for builders →

Replacement canopy is the part that bites

Sites up to 1,000 m² owe a set number of replacement trees, scaling from one on a site under 100 m² to six between 701 and 1,000 m². Above 1,000 m² the test switches to a minimum 20% canopy cover of the site area.

Replacements must reach at least 6 m tall and 4 m wide at maturity, and need real ground to do it in. That is a design constraint. Far cheaper to find out before the plans are drawn than after.

How it works

Four steps, no surprises

Send me the plans

Site plan, proposed works, and the address. If you do not have plans yet, tell me the address and what you are hoping to build. That is often the better time to call.

Fixed quote within one business day

A number, what it covers, and what it does not. If the job needs two stages I will say so up front, not quote one and invoice for two.

Site inspection

Every tree measured and photographed on site, with the figures worked out while I am standing there. Nothing gets reconstructed at a desk a week later.

Report, and the follow-up

Delivered as a PDF you can lodge. If council comes back with a question about it, answering that is part of the job. It is not a variation.

Buttressed base of an old eucalypt covered in moss — Structure and buttressing tell you what the root plate is doing

Canopy of an old growth eucalypt seen from directly below — Canopy spread drives the Clause 52.37 test

Fibrous bark of a mature eucalypt with tree fern at its base — Ground conditions at the base decide what excavation is survivable

Eucalypt crown radiating overhead, viewed from the base of the trunk

Seven years in the canopy before I wrote a word about it

I climbed for a living before I started consulting. It is the difference between knowing what a standard says and knowing what actually happens when an excavator meets a root plate.

More about how I work

Councils

Local controls, council by council

Overlays, local policy and what each council's arborist actually sends reports back for. Written for the person lodging the application. Every other page out there is written for someone who just wants a tree gone.

Send me the plans and I will send you a number.

Fixed fee, quoted in writing within one business day, with the scope written down so nobody is surprised later. If it turns out you do not need a report, I will tell you that too.

Request a quote See all fees