Curlewis
Tree removal in Curlewis
Tree removal, pruning and storm clean-ups in Curlewis, from new estate lots in the Jetty Road growth area to blocks along the coast.
Tree work in Curlewis
Protected red gums, a heritage homestead and clay underneath
In the Jetty Road Urban Growth Area, the development plan schedule calls for the protection of four scattered River Red Gums in a local park, and of six scattered native trees, River Red Gum, Manna Gum and Swamp Gum, in open space or road reserve. It also says drainage works at the corner of Coriyule Road and McDermott Road must not harm the health of the significant River Red Gum in the McDermott Road reserve. Those gums stand on public land, so any pruning of them is for the City to arrange, and a removal or stump grinding job on a new lot nearby keeps its machines out of their root zones and away from their crowns.
Coriyule, the colonial homestead on McDermott Road, is on the Victorian Heritage Register. The permit exemptions for its landscape include the removal or pruning of dead or dangerous trees to maintain safety, and tree management under the Australian Standard for pruning amenity trees. Tree work in the registered grounds that falls outside the listed exemptions is taken up with Heritage Victoria before anything is booked.
A soil survey pit at Curlewis, on undulating rises of Hanson Plain Sand, is a black chromosol: fine sandy loam, then sandy clay loam to 45 cm, over a medium clay subsoil. The survey notes that a texture contrast that strong can restrict root growth, so roots on these rises tend to spread wide and shallow above the clay, and a tree on clay that stays waterlogged after rain is easier for the wind to topple.
Sources: Development Plan Overlay, Jetty Road Urban Growth Area Stage 2, Greater Geelong Planning Scheme (retrieved 15/10/2026); Coriyule Homestead, Curlewis (VHR H0272), Victorian Heritage Database (retrieved 15/10/2026); Curlewis soil pit, Victorian Resources Online (archived) (retrieved 15/10/2026); Storm wreaks havoc on the Bellarine (April 2020), Bellarine Times (retrieved 15/10/2026); Design and Development Overlay, Avila Road, Curlewis, Greater Geelong Planning Scheme (retrieved 15/10/2026); Curlewis coast geological site, Victorian Resources Online (archived) (retrieved 15/10/2026)
Services in Curlewis
Estate lots, storm damage and surface roots
Tree removal
Trees on new estate lots and coastal blocks taken down in sections, with the drop zone marked out before the first cut.
Emergency tree removal
Trees and limbs brought down by a storm cleared from roofs, fences and driveways, the most urgent first.
Stump grinding
Stumps ground out, then the surface roots running off across the lawn ground back with them.
What it costs: tree removal cost, stump grinding cost
Compared: removal, lopping or pruning, stump grinding or stump removal, council tree rules compared
How it works
From the first call to a clear garden
Nothing happens without a written quote you have agreed to.
Tell us about the tree
Call or send the form with the tree and what is worrying you.
A contractor comes to see it
A local tree contractor looks at the tree, the access and whatever sits underneath it, because a quote off a photo misses the things that change the job.
A written quote
The quote sets out the scope, what happens to the timber and the stump, and the date. It is the contractor's quote, and nothing starts until you accept it.
The work and the clean up
On the day the tree is dealt with as quoted, the green waste leaves on the truck and the lawn is raked.
Curlewis questions
Storm nights, sheltering trees and weathered bluffs
Do bad storms hit Curlewis?
They can. In early April 2020, the Bellarine SES unit controller reported a very severe storm cell over and around Curlewis overnight, with nine call-outs, all but one of them in the Curlewis area. When damage bunches up in one suburb overnight, several jobs are waiting at once, so a big tree near the house is worth checking for weak limbs before the stormy months.
Can a tree that shelters the house come out?
On the coastal lots under the Avila Road design and development overlay, it may be one the overlay expects to stay. The overlay asks that existing vegetation be retained where it is important in preventing erosion and protecting dwellings from wind, and that building materials withstand sand, salt and wind buffeting. A removal there is weighed against the shelter the tree gives and the soil it holds.
Why are bluff-top trees cut down in pieces?
Along the coast near Scarborough Road, an archived state listing of geological sites, drawn from a survey of the bay's coast in the late eighties, describes a sloping bluff with some low cliffed and eroding sectors. The tuff beds in those cliffs and bluffs are deeply weathered to grey, brown and yellow clays, it says. A tree on a lot above that ground is cut down in sections with the machinery kept back from the crest, and its stump is ground or left rather than pulled out.
