Drysdale
Tree removal in Drysdale
Tree removal, lopping and stump grinding in Drysdale, from the town centre and the reserve by McLeods Waterholes to lifestyle lots on Murradoc Hill.
Tree work in Drysdale
Heritage areas, very tall poplars and a limestone lake
The Greater Geelong heritage overlay switches on tree controls in the Drysdale Commercial Heritage Area, which takes in the town centre, and in the McLeods Waterholes Heritage Area beside the recreation reserve. Inside either one, a planning permit is needed before a tree is removed, destroyed or lopped, so an address there is looked up on the heritage map before it is quoted and the work waits for the council's decision. At the waterholes, the 1996 Bellarine Heritage Study recorded mature exotic cypress pine, oak, willow and poplar trees. Where those old trees still stand on the reserve their care is the City's to arrange, and work on a lot beside them is planned around their overhanging limbs and root zones.
At one Drysdale address, the City of Greater Geelong's tree records list 38 Monterey pines and 11 Lombardy poplars over 20 metres, along with Aleppo pines, sugar gums and Monterey cypresses of that height. Ageing Lombardy poplars are prone to dropping limbs, so a job on a lot next to trees like these is planned with rigging, a large chipper and a clear drop zone.
Lake Lorne, a natural freshwater lake on the urban edge of the town, sits in a depression the City says was probably formed by the dissolution of the underlying Curlewis limestone. It is connected to the groundwater system and its level can rise and fall greatly, so in a wet season the ground near it can be too soft for heavy machines, and a big tree on saturated soil is more likely to blow over.
Sources: Schedule to the Heritage Overlay, Greater Geelong Planning Scheme (retrieved 13/10/2026); McLeods Waterholes, Drysdale (HO1613), Victorian Heritage Database (retrieved 15/10/2026); Trees dataset, City of Greater Geelong (Geelong Data Exchange), Drysdale's tallest recorded trees (retrieved 15/10/2026); Lake Lorne Reserve and Wetland, City of Greater Geelong (retrieved 15/10/2026); Schedule 13 to the Significant Landscape Overlay, Murradoc Hill, Greater Geelong Planning Scheme (retrieved 15/10/2026); Drysdale Landfill, City of Greater Geelong (retrieved 15/10/2026)
Services in Drysdale
Tall conifers, heritage lopping and stumps on limestone
Tree removal
Pines, cypresses and poplars too tall to fell whole taken down in sections, climbed or reached from an elevated platform.
Tree lopping
In the town centre and waterholes heritage areas, limbs are lopped only once the council has granted its permit.
Stump grinding
Near Lake Lorne the grinder can strike limestone, so the depth a stump is ground to is settled on the day.
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.
Drysdale questions
The Murradoc Hill overlay and green waste at the landfill
Does Murradoc Hill have its own tree rules?
It does. Murradoc Hill, the highest point on the Bellarine Peninsula, is covered by Significant Landscape Overlay Schedule 13, Murradoc Hill, which requires a permit to remove, destroy or lop vegetation except non-native trees and other vegetation under 5 metres tall, dead or dying vegetation and listed environmental weeds. An application is expected to include a landscape plan of the vegetation to be removed, so on a rural or lifestyle lot up there the council's time is part of the job's timing.
Can green waste go to the Drysdale Landfill?
It can. Drysdale Landfill, on Becks Road off Murradoc Road, is open to commercial and industrial users and lists clean green waste among the wastes it weighs, which saves carting a load to a more distant tip. Commercial customers need a UHF radio tuned to channel 31 to enter.
