Storm damage and fallen trees in the Yarra Valley

The calls to make

Someone hurt or trapped: 000

Or anything else where a life is at risk.

A tree on the house, the car or the only way out: VICSES on 132 500

VICSES deals with trees that have fallen on a home or car or are blocking access. Trees still standing, and clearing up what has come down, are left to a tradesperson.

Wires down

Keep 8 m back from the line and from whatever it is lying on, roughly two car lengths, and ring the distributor. AusNet Services' fault line is 13 17 99; Energy Safe Victoria lists the others.

Checked 23 October 2026 against VICSES: what we do and Energy Safe Victoria: storms and energy safety.

The dangerous part can go now

Every overlay in the valley, and the state's native vegetation clause, lets you remove vegetation that is an immediate risk of injury or of damage to property, without a permit. The exemption covers the part that is the risk and nothing more. A limb cracked and leaning on the roof can come off today. The gum it grew from stays until someone has looked at it.

Photograph the damage and the whole tree before any of it is cut. The photos record why it had to go, and an insurer may want them.

Checked 23 October 2026 against Victoria Planning Provisions, Clause 42.03 (Significant Landscape Overlay), Victoria Planning Provisions, Clause 42.01 (Environmental Significance Overlay) and Victoria Planning Provisions, Clause 52.17 (native vegetation).

Why a fallen tree is still dangerous

A tree that has come down is often still loaded. A trunk propped on another, or a limb bent under its own weight, can whip or roll when the cut releases it. Keep off the roof and away from anything hanging, and leave the saw work to a local arborist.

Branches touching or caught in a power line are the distributor's. Nobody else may work within 3 m of an overhead line without the network operator's permission, and between 3 and 6.4 m a registered spotter has to watch.

Checked 23 October 2026 against Energy Safe Victoria: No Go Zones and Energy Safe Victoria: trees and vegetation.

A tree killed by the storm

A storm can leave a tree standing but dead. Across most of the valley the overlays let a dead tree go, with one catch:

• The town overlays, SLO22 and SLO23, and the farm and river-flat overlays, SLO6 and SLO2, all exempt dead vegetation.
• ESO1 is the exception. It keeps a permit for a standing dead tree more than 1.3 m around the trunk. It covered much of Lilydale's green wedge in our sample, and the centre points of Chum Creek, Wandin North, Launching Place and Hoddles Creek, so check for it before an old dead gum in a paddock comes down.
• Wonga Park is mostly Manningham, where dead vegetation is exempt except a dead eucalypt more than 1 m around and more than 20 m from a building. Maroondah's landscape overlays exempt a tree a suitably qualified person has declared dead, dying or dangerous.

The permit guide sorts the overlays by kind of block, and your property report says which ones are yours.

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), Yarra Ranges Planning Scheme, Schedule 6 to Clause 42.03 (SLO6), Yarra Ranges Planning Scheme, Schedule 2 to Clause 42.03 (SLO2), Yarra Ranges Planning Scheme, Schedule 1 to Clause 42.01 (ESO1), Manningham Planning Scheme, Schedule 2 to Clause 42.01 (ESO2), Manningham Planning Scheme, Schedule 4 to Clause 42.01 (ESO4), Maroondah Planning Scheme, Schedule 1 to Clause 42.03 (SLO1) and Maroondah Planning Scheme, Schedule 4 to Clause 42.03 (SLO4).

Wind, and then water

On 25 October 2022, 70 mm of rain fell on Lilydale in an hour. Homes flooded, and 25 people had to be rescued after trying to drive through the water. The June 2021 storm, which brought down thousands of trees across Melbourne's east, came with more than 270 mm of rain in the Dandenong Ranges and flooding along the rivers.

On the river flats a fallen tree can sit in or beside floodwater. Land there is often under the flood overlay, LSIO. That overlay needs a permit for works, but clause 62.02 keeps tree removal out of a works permit unless an overlay asks for it by name, and LSIO doesn't. Filling the hole a root plate left, or reshaping the ground, is earthworks, so ask the council first.

Checked 23 October 2026 against Wikipedia: Extreme weather events in Melbourne, Victoria Planning Provisions, Clause 44.04 (Land Subject to Inundation Overlay) and Victoria Planning Provisions, Clause 62.02 (buildings and works not requiring a permit).