An interwar suburb being redrawn
Palmyra runs back from Canning Highway towards Bicton and Melville, and most of it went up between the wars and in the decade after: brick-and-tile cottages on blocks generous enough that somebody, eventually, would want to split them. That is what has been happening. Rear lots, survey-strata pairs and duplex developments have gone in street by street, and the trees planted in those original back gardens are now standing somewhere nobody planned for them.
So the enquiry that comes out of Palmyra is rarely "this tree is dangerous". It is "this tree is in the way of the plan", or "this tree has ended up between two lots and neither owner wants to pay for it".
The tree that lands on the new line
Subdivision changes who controls a tree. A trunk that used to be plainly yours can finish up on a boundary, hard against a common property driveway, or in a neighbour's courtyard with half its roots under your lawn.
The honest advice is to settle it before anyone quotes. A tree standing on the boundary is generally not one owner's to take out on their own, and cutting back to the line is not permission to remove half a crown. Where the two sides cannot agree on the tree's condition or retention value, an independent arborist assessment gives both of them the same document to work from, and it is what the City will want to see if the tree is regulated. The permits and approvals page sets out who else has a say.
Access gets worse after the block is developed
Before subdivision, a Palmyra back garden usually had a side gate wide enough for a wheelbarrow and a truck that could sit on the verge. Afterwards there is a new dwelling, a common driveway, brick paving laid to the boundary and a retaining wall holding up the neighbour's courtyard.
That turns a straightforward job into a rigging job. The tree comes down in small sections, tied off and lowered rather than dropped, then carried out to whatever the chipper can reach. The removals page explains how sectional dismantling runs, and the Perth cost guide shows why access moves a quote further than trunk diameter ever does.
The Canning Highway edge
The highway frontage is a different job again. Overhead lines run the length of it, there is no stopping a chipper in a traffic lane without arrangements, and the trees along there have usually been cut back from the wires by someone else already, often badly. Where a crown has been butchered into a mass of weak regrowth, reducing it properly back to sound laterals is pruning work rather than a removal, and it is the cheaper answer more often than people expect.
Ground, wind and what is left behind
Tamala limestone under shallow sand, as everywhere in this district. Root plates run wide across the rock instead of driving down, which is why an established tree can lift in saturated winter sand under a frontal wind, and why the stump grinder often finds limestone before it finds the last root. Summer brings the Fremantle Doctor through most afternoons, and thinning a big exposed crown so air passes through it is the most useful pruning done here.
The date palms and Cocos planted along sixties driveways are a separate trade with separate gear, covered on the palm page.
Getting a price
Ring 08 7741 1934 with the species, rough height, what sits underneath and where a truck could stand. Anything already down after a front is storm response. The same crews work Bicton, Melville and Myaree next door.
Frequently asked questions
Our block has been subdivided. Do we still decide about the tree?
Only if it is clearly on your lot. Once a new boundary is drawn, a tree whose trunk straddles that line is usually the responsibility of both owners rather than either one, and removing it without agreement invites a dispute. Settle it in writing before a crew is booked. Where the two sides disagree about the tree's condition, a written arborist assessment gives everyone the same facts.
Who do I ask about the street tree outside my house in Palmyra?
The City of Melville. Verge trees are council assets regardless of who has been watering them, and that includes trees that have to move for a new or widened crossover. The City is the authority on whether it comes out, who does the work and what conditions attach. One phone call to them before your builder cuts a driveway saves an argument later.
Can a tree be removed just because it sits where the new dwelling goes?
Sometimes, but it is worth testing the assumption before the survey pegs go in. Plenty of trees are felled for convenience when a shifted footprint, a relocated driveway or a different bin store would have kept them. Planning approvals on subdivided lots can also carry retention or replacement conditions the owner has never read, so check the approval and ring the City first.
The tree is right beside new brick paving. Will grinding the stump wreck it?
It does not have to. A grinder needs room to swing, so the paving edge, the meter box and any services near the stump get identified before the machine starts. On a tight survey-strata courtyard that sometimes means a narrow-access grinder and a slower job. Say what is going over the spot afterwards, because grinding to turf is shallower than grinding for a footing.