St Albans Park
Tree removal in St Albans Park
Tree removal, pruning and stump grinding in St Albans Park, planned around the heritage places of the old St Albans Stud and the City's nature strip trees.
Tree work in St Albans Park
Racehorse burial trees and a registered homestead
Amid the suburban streets of St Albans Park, a large tree known commonly as the Phar Lap Tree is recorded on the Victorian Heritage Inventory as a St Albans Stud horse burial site. It probably marks at least three thoroughbred burials, with the Melbourne Cup winner Briseis most likely among them. The other, one of two St Albans Stud burial trees on the Inventory, may hold thoroughbred burials besides that of Mersey, the dam of Carbine.
Both records, updated in June 2022, say the ground right around each tree has not been significantly disturbed below the surface, so any horse burials are likely to be intact. Work near either tree is planned so that ground stays undisturbed: grinding, root cutting and digging close by are kept to a minimum, and trucks and outriggers stay well clear.
The St Albans homestead, built for the racehorse breeder and trainer James Wilson, is on the Victorian Heritage Register as H0741. Its 1989 registration extends to all of its buildings and to the land shown hatched in its certificate of title, so a tree on that land is checked with Heritage Victoria before any pruning, removal or grinding is booked. On the day, the truck and chipper are kept clear of the registered buildings.
Sources: St Albans Stud Horse Burial Site 2 (Phar Lap Tree), Victorian Heritage Database (retrieved 15/10/2026); St Albans Stud Horse Burial Site 1, Victorian Heritage Database (retrieved 15/10/2026); St Albans Homestead, Victorian Heritage Database (retrieved 15/10/2026); Trees dataset, City of Greater Geelong (Geelong Data Exchange), velvet ashes (retrieved 15/10/2026); St Albans Park, Victorian Places (retrieved 15/10/2026)
Services in St Albans Park
Rigged removals, City ashes and untouched ground
Tree removal
Trees close to the houses on the built-up streets taken down in rigged sections, each piece lowered on a rope.
Tree pruning
Limbs over roofs, gutters and fences cut back on private trees, while a velvet ash on the nature strip stays the City's to prune.
Stump grinding
Stumps ground out below lawn level, with the grinder kept well away from the ground beside the two burial trees.
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.
St Albans Park questions
Velvet ashes and the river end of the suburb
Who looks after the velvet ashes on the nature strips?
The City does. The only velvet ash street trees in the City's records are listed under St Albans Park, 23 of them, so pruning one or having one removed is raised with the City rather than booked privately. Work on a private tree behind one keeps the chipper, the outriggers and the grinder out from under its crown and off its roots.
Is there more room to work toward the river?
Often. In its 2015 entry, Victorian Places records that the suburb's southern boundary is the Barwon River, and that it is less built-up toward the south. More open ground can let the truck, chipper and stump grinder set up near the tree, but low ground near a river can stay soft after rain, so access is checked on foot before any machine goes on.
