Tree removal in Lilydale

Near the station: the canopy-tree rule

The eight points in the Residential Growth Zone had no landscape overlay at all. DDO7, the overlay for the residential streets around the town centre, covers them. It shapes new buildings, and needs no permit to remove a tree.

The state's canopy-tree rule does apply there, and in the Neighbourhood Residential streets alongside the township overlays. On a lot with a house, a tree at least 5 m tall with a canopy at least 4 m across needs a permit if its trunk is within 6 m of the narrowest street frontage or 4.5 m of the rear boundary. On a vacant lot, any such tree does.

Checked 23 October 2026 against Victoria Planning Provisions, Clause 52.37 (canopy trees), Yarra Ranges Planning Scheme, Schedule 7 to Clause 43.02 (DDO7) and Victoria Planning Provisions, Clause 62.02 (buildings and works not requiring a permit).

Trees with heritage controls

More than 20 heritage places in Lilydale carry tree controls. The public ones:

• The Queen Victoria Jubilee Avenue of trees along the Maroondah Highway.
• The historic street trees of Anderson Street, Castella Street, Clarke Street, the southern end of Cave Hill Road, part of The Eyrie, and the western edge of the recreation reserve. Anderson and Castella Streets are named after the family of Lilly de Castella, the early settler the town is named for.
• Melba Park, and the Lilydale Cemetery, where Dame Nellie Melba is buried.
• St John's Anglican Church in Jones Street, and the former Methodist church and hall and the court house in Castella Street.
• The olive tree that gave the Olive Tree shopping centre its name.
• The old Lilydale to Warburton railway, now the rail trail.

A group of houses in the Mount View Estate carries tree controls too. If your block is in a Heritage Overlay, the property report gives its number, and the schedule says whether trees are controlled there.

Checked 23 October 2026 against Yarra Ranges Planning Scheme, Schedule to Clause 43.01 (Heritage Overlay), Victoria Planning Provisions, Clause 43.01 (Heritage Overlay) and Wikipedia: Lilydale, Victoria.

The farmland around the town

By area, most of Lilydale is green wedge. About 75 of our 182 points fell on farm and bush zoned that way, under SLO6, the "rolling hills and bushy agriculture" overlay. Its permit takes in native vegetation of any size and any tree over 1.1 m around. The exemptions reach 4 m from a building, not 2 m, and planted windrows and woodlots can come out under a property management plan the council has accepted. SLO6 also needs a permit for a new fence, with some exceptions.

ESO1 came up at 36 points, mostly the same green wedge land. It exempts dead vegetation except a standing dead tree over 1.3 m around, so a big dead gum near a paddock needs a permit even though SLO6 alone would let it go.

Checked 23 October 2026 against Yarra Ranges Planning Scheme, Schedule 6 to Clause 42.03 (SLO6) and Yarra Ranges Planning Scheme, Schedule 1 to Clause 42.01 (ESO1).

Olinda Creek, the lake and the old quarry

Olinda Creek runs down from the Dandenongs through Lilydale to the Yarra. The flood overlay, for land that can go under water, came up at 15 of our points. It needs a permit for buildings and works, a new fence included, but not for removing a tree.

The Kinley estate is on the former Lilydale quarry, the source of "Lilydale toppings". It has a zone of its own, built around a development plan that had to identify the site's significant trees and which would be kept. A tree on a Kinley lot is a question for the property report and the council.

Checked 23 October 2026 against Victoria Planning Provisions, Clause 44.04 (Land Subject to Inundation Overlay), Victoria Planning Provisions, Clause 62.02 (buildings and works not requiring a permit), Yarra Ranges Planning Scheme, Schedule 1 to Clause 37.02 (CDZ1, former Lilydale Quarry) and Wikipedia: Lilydale, Victoria.

The rule next door

Chirnside Park

SLO23, the 80 cm overlay, at all 38 residential points we sampled. Its houses mostly date from the 1970s, on old grazing land.

Mooroolbark

SLO23 at all 92 residential points, with SLO22 on the larger blocks.

Coldstream

SLO22, the 50 cm rule, at every town point we sampled.

Wandin North and Gruyere

Farmland under SLO6, and in Wandin North the red-soil SLO5 as well. SLO22 covers Wandin North's village.

Every overlay in the valley is in the permit guide.

Checked 23 October 2026 against Yarra Ranges Planning Scheme, Schedule 22 to Clause 42.03 (SLO22), Yarra Ranges Planning Scheme, Schedule 23 to Clause 42.03 (SLO23) and Yarra Ranges Planning Scheme, Schedule 6 to Clause 42.03 (SLO6).