Tree pruning in the Yarra Valley

Town block or farm block

The valley has two sets of pruning rules, and which you get depends mostly on whether you are in a town or out on the land.

In town: SLO22 and SLO23

Pruning or lopping that helps a plant regenerate is exempt. Branches directly over a house, garage or shed can be taken back until they are 2 m clear of it.

On farm and bush land: SLO6, SLO2, SLO5 and ESO1

Pruning for the plant's health or structural soundness is exempt, up to a third of its foliage. Branches directly over a lawfully built building can be taken back until they are 4 m clear of it.

In Wonga Park

Mostly Manningham. On house blocks under ESO4 or SLO1, pruning an exotic or non-Victorian tree for regeneration or ornamental shape is exempt; a tree indigenous to Victoria has no pruning exemption, so lopping it needs a permit. Along the river, Manningham's SLO2 exempts only light pruning: dead or broken branches, or branches under 50 mm thick, up to a third of the foliage. Maroondah's landscape overlays exempt pruning for regeneration or ornamental shaping.

Anything beyond those needs a permit wherever removing the plant would, because each overlay's permit covers lopping as well as removal. A free VicPlan property report lists your overlays.

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 5 to Clause 42.03 (SLO5), Yarra Ranges Planning Scheme, Schedule 1 to Clause 42.01 (ESO1), 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 42.03 (SLO2), Maroondah Planning Scheme, Schedule 1 to Clause 42.03 (SLO1) and Maroondah Planning Scheme, Schedule 4 to Clause 42.03 (SLO4).

Windrows and shelter belts

A planted windrow along a paddock can be removed under SLO6 or SLO2 without a permit if the removal follows a property management plan the council has accepted. Pruning a windrow is a different question. It falls under the ordinary pruning exemption above, a third of each plant's foliage for its health, and cutting harder than that on a tree the overlay protects needs a permit.

SLO6 also needs a permit for buildings or works within 4 m of the trunk of a tree it protects, so a new shed tucked in beside the windrow is a planning question too.

Checked 23 October 2026 against Yarra Ranges Planning Scheme, Schedule 6 to Clause 42.03 (SLO6) and Yarra Ranges Planning Scheme, Schedule 2 to Clause 42.03 (SLO2).

Topping a tree

Topping takes the main trunk off to make a tree shorter. It is hard to describe as pruning for health or for regeneration, and the state's native vegetation clause rules out cutting the trunk. If anyone suggests topping a tree the overlay protects, ask the council first.

Checked 23 October 2026 against Victoria Planning Provisions, Clause 52.17 (native vegetation) and Yarra Ranges Planning Scheme, Schedule 6 to Clause 42.03 (SLO6).

Trees and the power line

The service line from the pole to your house is yours to keep clear where your tree is the problem. A tree of yours near the line to the neighbour's house is the distributor's job. Energy Safe Victoria's advice is to cut back before branches get within 1 m of a service line.

Closer than that, or where a branch could fall across the line, leave it to someone qualified. Inside 3 m of an overhead line the network operator has to give permission, and from 3 to 6.4 m a registered spotter must watch the work.

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

Over the fence

Branches, leaves and roots that cross onto your land can be cut back to the boundary, at your cost. The neighbour's tree is under the same overlays as yours, so check with the council that it isn't protected, tell the neighbour before the work, and agree what happens to the cuttings.

Checked 23 October 2026 against Victorian Government: trees in Victoria (neighbours).

Agree the cut before it starts

Ask a local arborist which limbs will come off, about how much of the canopy that is, and whether the work follows AS 4373, the Australian Standard for pruning. That lets you hold the plan up against your overlay's exemption before anything is cut.

Prunings left behind can go out in Yarra Ranges' bundled branch collection: bundles up to 1.5 m long, 3 m³ in all, on dates set by address.

Checked 23 October 2026 against Yarra Ranges Council: bundled branch collection.