Turramurra, top and bottom
Turramurra runs along the upper North Shore ridge and then falls away steeply on its southern side into the Lane Cove valley. Those two halves are different jobs.
On the ridge, Wianamatta shale grew Blue Gum High Forest — Sydney blue gum, blackbutt and turpentine to forty metres — and plenty of those trees still stand on the large garden blocks between the Pacific Highway and the railway. Below, as the land drops toward Lane Cove National Park, the geology changes to Hawkesbury sandstone and the species change with it to angophora, Sydney peppermint, scribbly gum and red bloodwood.
Ku-ring-gai rules apply to both
Ku-ring-gai Council operates the most restrictive tree controls in New South Wales. The size threshold is low, the exempt list is short, and substantial pruning is treated much like removal. Add the state-level protection carried by remnant Blue Gum High Forest and Sydney Turpentine-Ironbark Forest, and the practical position is that most mature trees in Turramurra need approval before anything beyond minor deadwooding.
Bushland-adjacent blocks carry additional biodiversity considerations. Assume more process, not less, the closer you are to the national park boundary.
What the work usually is
Deadwooding. The highest-value maintenance on a mature Turramurra eucalypt and the easiest to get approved. A dead limb in a large blue gum is heavy, brittle and drops without warning. Taking them out annually or every second year handles most of the genuine risk.
Clearance pruning. Foliage off roofs, gutters and solar panels. Routine, and generally straightforward as long as the cuts are properly placed.
Staged crown reduction. Where a canopy genuinely needs to come down in size, it is taken in stages — no more than about a quarter of the live crown in a season — across two or three years. That is better for the tree and easier to justify to the council than one drastic cut.
What is not worth buying is topping. Cutting a blue gum back to stubs at a chosen height produces dense epicormic regrowth anchored only in the outer wood, heavier and weaker than the limbs it replaced within a decade.
Gully blocks
The southern fall is where the labour goes. Houses sit on the ridge with the garden dropping away behind, often reached by a long flight of steps and a retaining wall or two. Nothing wheels down there and nothing wheels back up, so every branch section and every trunk round is carried. A job that would take half a day on a flat block takes most of two.
If you are on one of those blocks, say so at the quote — it is the difference that matters.
Nearby
Pymble is the next suburb south under the same council, Wahroonga and Hornsby cover removals to the north, and the North Shore region page covers the councils.
Ring (02) 9000 1943, or read what lopping should mean.
Other numbers for this area
You can also reach us on (02) 9538 7842. Either number reaches the same team - tell us the suburb and what the job involves and we will get an arborist out to look at it.
Frequently asked questions
Is the spelling of this page's address a mistake?
The suburb is Turramurra. This page keeps its original web address, which was spelled differently, so that anyone who has bookmarked or linked to it still lands here rather than on an error page. The suburb, the council and the advice are all Turramurra.
What is the difference between working a ridge block and a gully block here?
Access, almost entirely. A ridge block off the Pacific Highway has a driveway, room for a chipper and level ground to work on. A gully block on the southern fall has the garden twenty or thirty metres below the house with steps as the only route, so every branch is carried uphill by hand. The tree may be identical; the price is not.
Do trees near Lane Cove National Park have extra protection?
Frequently. Bushland-adjacent land in Ku-ring-gai carries biodiversity considerations beyond the ordinary tree threshold, and remnant Blue Gum High Forest and Sydney Turpentine-Ironbark Forest are both critically endangered communities found in this area. Have the mapping checked for your property rather than assuming a garden tree is unregulated.