Tree removal permits in the Yarra Valley

First, which overlay is yours?

In the valley the overlay on your title decides most of it, and the town streets and the paddocks behind them often carry different ones. A free property report from VicPlan lists your zone, your overlays and whether the land is in a Bushfire Prone Area. Search your address, open the planning property report, and look for the codes that start SLO, ESO, VPO, EMO or HO. The number after the code is the schedule, and it is the schedule that sets the rule.

Yarra Ranges Council's own advice is that taking a tree out of private land needs a planning permit unless an exemption applies. Its planning department is on 1300 368 333.

Checked 23 October 2026 against Yarra Ranges Council: removing a tree on private land.

A house block in town: SLO22 or SLO23

The towns are split between two township overlays. Of the valley's towns, SLO22 names Lilydale, Mooroolbark, Coldstream, Healesville, Yarra Glen, Seville, Seville East, Woori Yallock, Wandin North and Warburton. SLO23 names Lilydale, Mooroolbark, Chirnside Park, Coldstream, Healesville, Yarra Glen and Yarra Junction. Where a town is in both, your property report says which covers your street.

SLO22

A permit for any tree more than 50 cm around the trunk at 1.3 m (a 16 cm trunk), and for indigenous vegetation of any size.

SLO23

A permit for any tree more than 80 cm around at 1.3 m (a 26 cm trunk). No separate catch for native plants.

What both exempt

A tree within 2 m of a building; branches over a house, garage or shed, cut back to 2 m clear; dead vegetation; lopping or pruning to help it regrow; and species on the council's List of Environmental Weeds 2019.

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

Farm and bush: SLO6 and ESO1

SLO6, the "rolling hills and bushy agriculture" overlay, covers the valley's grazing land, vineyards and orchards, and the bush between them. It needs a permit for native vegetation of any size and for any tree more than 1.1 m around at 1.3 m (a 35 cm trunk).

• The exemption near a building reaches 4 m, twice the townships' distance.
• Dead vegetation, and pruning for health that takes no more than a third of a plant's foliage, are exempt.
• Planted windrows, woodlots and landscaping can be removed under a property management plan the council has accepted.
• A new fence needs a permit as well, with some exceptions.

ESO1, a habitat overlay, sits over much of the same land. It doesn't cover exotic trees, and it exempts dead vegetation except a standing dead tree more than 1.3 m around. Where both overlays apply, that big dead tree needs a permit.

Wandin East's centre point is under SLO5 instead, the red-soil farming overlay, with the same tree terms as SLO6.

Checked 23 October 2026 against Yarra Ranges Planning Scheme, Schedule 6 to Clause 42.03 (SLO6), Yarra Ranges Planning Scheme, Schedule 1 to Clause 42.01 (ESO1) and Yarra Ranges Planning Scheme, Schedule 5 to Clause 42.03 (SLO5).

The open river flats: SLO2

SLO2, the "open valley landscape", came up at the centre points of Yering, Tarrawarra and Launching Place. Its tree terms are SLO6's, with one addition: regrowth that has come up naturally on land lawfully cleared of native vegetation, and is less than 10 years old, can be removed. That doesn't apply where the land was cleared by flood, fire or another disaster.

Checked 23 October 2026 against Yarra Ranges Planning Scheme, Schedule 2 to Clause 42.03 (SLO2).

Wonga Park: mostly Manningham

Wonga Park is split between Manningham, Maroondah and Yarra Ranges, but nine in ten of the points we sampled there were Manningham, and Manningham's overlays work differently from Yarra Ranges'.

ESO4 and SLO1: the house blocks

A permit for every plant indigenous to Victoria, and for any other tree, exotic or native, over 35 cm around the trunk at 1.3 m or over 6 m tall.

ESO2 and ESO3: the bush blocks

ESO2 covers Victorian native vegetation of any size. ESO3 adds Australian native trees from elsewhere over 35 cm around or 6 m tall. Neither covers an exotic tree.

What all four exempt

A trunk within 2 m of the roof, eaves included, of a building people live in; dead vegetation, except a dead eucalypt over 1 m around and more than 20 m from a building; and the species each schedule's table lists.

SLO2: the Yarra corridor

Manningham's SLO2 is not Yarra Ranges'. It needs a permit for any vegetation except a small non-native plant (under 6 m, 35 cm around and 4 m across), and light pruning.

The Wonga Park page has the detail, and the Maroondah and Yarra Ranges edges. Council tree pages: Manningham, Maroondah and Yarra Ranges.

Checked 23 October 2026 against Manningham Planning Scheme, Schedule 4 to Clause 42.01 (ESO4), Manningham Planning Scheme, Schedule 1 to Clause 42.03 (SLO1), Manningham Planning Scheme, Schedule 2 to Clause 42.01 (ESO2), Manningham Planning Scheme, Schedule 3 to Clause 42.01 (ESO3), Manningham Planning Scheme, Schedule 2 to Clause 42.03 (SLO2), Manningham City Council: canopy trees on residential land and Maroondah City Council: tree and native vegetation removal.

State rules, whatever the overlay

The 10/30 rule

Around a house in a Bushfire Prone Area built or approved before 10 September 2009, trees within 10 m and other vegetation within 30 m can be cleared without a planning permit. Much of the valley is bushfire-prone, but Lilydale's suburban streets mostly are not. Only 5 of the 25 points we sampled there were. The conditions are on the 10/30 page.

Canopy trees

In residential zones, a tree at least 5 m tall with a canopy at least 4 m across needs a permit. On a lot with a house, only where the trunk is within 6 m of the narrowest street frontage or 4.5 m of the rear boundary. Dead canopy trees are exempt, and the Low Density Residential and Green Wedge zones are outside the rule. The clause changed on 24 September 2026, so older advice may differ.

Native vegetation

The state's own clause needs a permit to remove native vegetation as well, except on land under 0.4 ha, counting any adjoining land you own. On a farm-sized block it usually applies.

Immediate risk and noxious weeds

Every overlay lets you remove the part of a tree that is an immediate risk of injury or damage, and declared noxious weeds. Blackberry is one, and landowners in the Port Phillip and Western Port catchment, which takes in the Yarra, must control it.

Checked 23 October 2026 against Victoria Planning Provisions, Clause 52.12 (bushfire protection exemptions), Victoria Planning Provisions, Clause 52.37 (canopy trees), Victoria Planning Provisions, Clause 52.17 (native vegetation), Victoria Planning Provisions, Clause 42.03 (Significant Landscape Overlay), Victoria Planning Provisions, Clause 42.01 (Environmental Significance Overlay) and Agriculture Victoria: blackberry.

Applying

Applications go to the council for your land. Under a landscape, vegetation or environmental overlay, a single tree can go through VicSmart, the state's fast track, if no other VicSmart tree permit has been granted on the land in the past 12 months and none is under way.

When you ask a local arborist for a quote, mention that the tree may need a permit, and ask whether they can write the arborist's report that goes with the application.

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