A small, dense council area
North Sydney Council covers North Sydney, Kirribilli, Milsons Point, McMahons Point, Waverton, Wollstonecraft, Crows Nest, Cammeray, Neutral Bay, Cremorne and Kurraba Point. It is small, steep, densely built and almost entirely on Hawkesbury sandstone running down to the harbour.
More than two-thirds of the housing is apartments and units, which changes the shape of most enquiries: the question is usually who owns the tree and who can authorise the work before it is what the work involves.
Approval, in order
Step one: who owns it? If the trunk emerges from common property, the owners corporation decides. If it is on the nature strip or in a foreshore reserve, it is council or Crown land and no private contractor may touch it.
Step two: is it protected? North Sydney runs protective tree controls with low thresholds. Assume a permit is required for anything beyond deadwooding on a small garden tree, and check the current development control plan.
Step three: foreshore and heritage overlays. Harbour foreshore land carries additional scenic and vegetation controls. Heritage conservation areas cover much of Kirribilli, McMahons Point and Waverton and add their own layer.
The trees
Port Jackson and Moreton Bay figs on the foreshore and in the older gardens, many of them individually significant and effectively untouchable. Angophora and Sydney peppermint on the sandstone slopes. Camphor laurel through the older residential streets, which is a declared weed and usually the most straightforward approval available. Jacaranda, liquidambar and a great deal of cocos palm in the garden stock.
Harbour-facing blocks get moderate salt exposure — nothing like the ocean coast, but enough to favour the natives over the exotics on the most exposed points.
The access problem
This is some of the hardest access in Sydney. Streets are narrow with resident parking, the blocks fall steeply toward the water, and many houses sit well below street level with stairs as the only route. Apartment blocks frequently have no vehicle path to the rear garden at all.
The practical consequence is that almost everything is carried by hand to a chipper standing in the street, sometimes up two or three levels of stairs. Where a crane can be stood in a street wide enough to take it, a large fig or gum comes out dramatically faster — worth asking about, but it needs a permit and clear overhead space.
Nearby
Mosman adjoins to the east with almost identical conditions, and the North Shore region page covers the councils inland. For council rules generally, see the council index.
Ring (02) 9000 1943, or read what lopping should mean.
Frequently asked questions
Who approves tree work on a strata property?
The owners corporation, before the council does. Common-property trees are the strata scheme's responsibility, so the work usually needs a committee resolution or a decision at a general meeting, and then a council permit on top if the tree is protected. Starting with the strata manager saves arranging a crew that then cannot proceed.
Is the harbour foreshore treated differently?
Yes. Foreshore land carries additional controls covering scenic quality and vegetation, on top of the ordinary tree preservation provisions, and some foreshore reserves are Crown or council land where no private work is permitted at all. Establish who owns the ground the trunk emerges from before anything else.
Can a crew work from a boat or a barge?
It happens on foreshore properties with no land access, and it is specialist work priced accordingly. More commonly the answer is a long hand-carry up stairs to the street, or a crane lift where the street geometry allows one. Either way the access method needs to be settled at the quote, not discovered on the day.