Tree removal and lopping in Junortoun

Council's planning scheme describes rural living in Junortoun as conserving "significant box-ironbark forests". Bendigo Tree Removal takes down, prunes and clears trees on Junortoun blocks, from the McIvor Highway out to the bush edge, and we ask about the permit side before anything is cut. Council has the final word.

Most homes here are separate houses on big lots, and many sit among the remnant forest that those planning rules protect. That makes Junortoun a suburb where the paperwork matters as much as the chainsaw.

Why so many Junortoun trees need a permit

By our calculation from the Victorian Government's planning map data, about half of Junortoun (roughly 1,414 hectares) is covered by the Vegetation Protection Overlay's "Significant Vegetation" schedule, VPO2. Where it applies, the schedule says: "A permit is required to remove, destroy or lop any native vegetation", with exceptions only for two named sites elsewhere in Greater Bendigo.

That overlay has no exemption for small blocks. The state's native vegetation rules exempt some lots smaller than 0.4 hectares, but on the VPO2 parts of Junortoun that exemption doesn't take away the need for a permit to remove or lop a native tree.

Two more planning details are particular to Junortoun:

• Rural conservation zones. Parts of the suburb are zoned for rural living that "conserves and permanently maintains significant box-ironbark forests", with minimum lot sizes of 1 or 2 hectares.
• A heritage-listed garden. One historic homestead on the McIvor Highway is in the Heritage Overlay with tree controls, for its "mature garden and palms". Its heritage statement notes that "The numerous date palm trees are also notable."

Clearing around a Junortoun home for fire season

All of Junortoun is a designated bushfire prone area, and by our calculation about 80% of it is also in the Bushfire Management Overlay. About 262 hectares of Greater Bendigo National Park lies inside the suburb, with parcels of Bendigo Regional Park along its edges.

The planning scheme's bushfire exemptions (Clause 52.12) let you clear around a home without a permit, but only on its terms:

• Within 10 metres of a home, any vegetation, including trees, can be removed or lopped, if the home was built or approved before 10 September 2009.
• Within 30 metres, any vegetation except trees can be cleared, on the same date condition.
• Within 50 metres in the Bushfire Management Overlay, again any vegetation except trees, with its own date conditions.
• Along a boundary fence built before 10 September 2009, vegetation including trees can be cleared in a strip of up to 4 metres combined across both sides.
• Newer homes built after those dates generally don't get these exemptions, so a tree near a newer Junortoun house may still need a permit.

Storm damage on Junortoun blocks

Storms have hit Junortoun hard in recent years. In its June 2024 submission to a federal inquiry, the City of Greater Bendigo described the 13 and 14 February 2024 storm: SES requests were "328, during the two days", and help was needed across areas where "the majority" were "in Junortoun, Kangaroo Flat, Lockwood, Spring Gully, Heathcote/Toolleen". The same document lists the 7 and 8 January 2024 storm as having "dwellings impacted in the Junortoun, Axedale and Strathfieldsaye areas".

After a storm, stay well clear of any branch touching a powerline and report it to Powercor before anyone goes near it. For a limb on the house or across the driveway, see storm damage and fallen trees.

What we do in Junortoun

• Tree removal: whole trees taken down in sections, with the stump ground and the site cleaned up.
• Tree lopping and pruning: branches cut back off roofs, gutters and fences, to a proper branch point.
• Stump grinding: stumps ground below the surface so the spot can be levelled or replanted.
• Storm damage and fallen trees: trees and limbs down across a roof, fence or driveway.

Before a tree comes down in Junortoun

Whether a tree needs a permit depends on the property, not just the suburb: the overlays on your block, the native vegetation rules and whether it's a council tree. Check your planning property report on VicPlan, or ask the City of Greater Bendigo. Our guide to tree removal permits in Bendigo sets out each rule.

Nearby suburbs

• Tree removal in Strathfieldsaye
• Tree removal in Strathdale
• Tree removal in Axedale
• Tree removal in Bendigo

Common questions