Old country, old trees
Nambour was a working sugar and fruit town long before it was a commuter suburb, and its trees carry that history. Big mangoes and avocados in backyards, macadamias on the town's edges, poincianas and jacarandas along the older streets, and camphor laurel absolutely everywhere.
The soil is deep and fertile - the same basalt-derived country that makes Buderim trees so large - and it grows everything fast. What was a shade tree on a quarter acre in 1960 is a 25-metre problem today.
Topography
Nambour is hills. Streets climb and fall sharply, blocks are terraced, and a lot of the older housing is high-set Queenslander on stumps with the yard dropping away behind.
For tree work that means three things. The drop zone is downhill whether you plan it that way or not. Chipper placement dictates the sequence of the whole job. And machine access to a back yard is frequently impossible, so grinding is a walk-behind job carried down in pieces.
Retaining walls are common and old, and a heavy machine near an ageing block wall is a risk worth quoting around rather than discovering.
Camphor laurel
The single most common removal in the suburb. Camphor is a declared environmental weed in Queensland, grows enormous here, and lifts paths, cracks walls and dominates small yards.
Two things matter with camphor. First, the regulatory position for a declared weed is usually simpler than for a native of the same size - check with the council, but do not assume you need the same approval as you would for a fig. Second, the stump must be ground deep or excavated, because a shaved camphor stump will sucker for years.
Fruit trees
Worth treating differently to ornamentals. An overgrown mango can be reduced in stages, taking no more than a quarter of the canopy in a season, and brought back to picking height over two or three years. Cutting it hard in one go usually produces a mass of weak water shoots and no fruit.
Avocados resent heavy pruning more than mangoes do and are better thinned than reduced. Macadamias tolerate reduction well.
Booking work
Ring (07) 5408 6029. Tell us how steep the driveway is and where the chipper can stand - on a Nambour block that shapes the price more than the tree does. Nearby pages: Maleny, Montville, and the full coverage area.
Frequently asked questions
Why is camphor laurel such a problem in Nambour?
It was planted widely as a shade tree a century ago and it thrives in the deep soils around Nambour and Petrie Creek. It is now a declared environmental weed across south-east Queensland, it suckers vigorously from a cut stump, and mature specimens have very large root plates. Removal usually needs the stump ground deep or excavated, not shaved.
Can you work on a steep Nambour driveway?
Usually, but the chipper placement decides the job. Many Nambour blocks fall steeply from the street, so the chipper stays up top and material gets winched or carried up. On the steepest blocks a smaller machine is used at the bottom and the chip is barrowed. Both add time.
Is the fruit tree in the backyard worth saving?
Often, yes. Nambour backyards are full of old mangoes, avocados, macadamias and citrus from the fruit-growing era, and a neglected mango that has gone to height can usually be brought back over two or three seasons of staged reduction rather than removed in one go.