Tree removal and lopping in Quarry Hill

By our calculation from Victorian Government planning map data, about half of Quarry Hill's addresses are in the Heritage Overlay's Quarry Hill Precinct (HO30). Bendigo Tree Removal prunes, removes and grinds out trees around Quarry Hill's period homes, and we ask which heritage rules apply to a property before a limb is cut; council confirms it.

The precinct's heritage statement credits its character to hilly ground, a high share of late Victorian and Edwardian houses, and its closeness to the Bendigo Cemetery. That slope shapes the work too: above a verandah, a tiled roof or a period fence, we climb the tree and rope big limbs down in sections rather than letting them fall.

What Quarry Hill's heritage precinct covers

The Heritage Overlay schedule marks the Quarry Hill Precinct as a place where tree controls don't apply. The overlay still controls buildings and works across the precinct, but removing or lopping a garden tree isn't one of its triggers there, unless the property is individually listed for a tree.

Other rules can still apply. Native trees fall under the state's native vegetation rules, and some Quarry Hill blocks are in vegetation overlays (see below). Your VicPlan planning property report lists every overlay on your block.

A draft heritage study prepared for council by Trethowan Heritage (August 2025) describes the area's "vegetated streetscape settings" as part of its aesthetic significance. It's a draft, not a planning control.

Quarry Hill's individually listed trees

Four private Quarry Hill properties are in the Heritage Overlay with tree controls for a particular tree. Removing or lopping one of these needs a planning permit, apart from the overlay's exceptions for immediate risk and powerline clearance. We don't publish the addresses, but a listed property's planning property report shows its Heritage Overlay number, and the schedule shows whether tree controls apply. The four trees are:

• Two Canary Island pines (Pinus canariensis), each at a private home.
• A liquidambar at a private home.
• A date palm at a private home.

The cemetery trees and the Railway Place figs

The Bendigo Cemetery is on the Victorian Heritage Register (H0798), and its registered extent includes individual trees: Himalayan cedars, southern magnolias, a petticoat palm, a Canary Island date palm, golden Monterey cypresses, a carob and a date palm. Its permit exemptions cover tree management to AS 4373, the Australian pruning standard.

At Railway Place, the Heritage Overlay's "Market Place Precinct" (HO8) does have tree controls. Its heritage record describes a row of Moreton Bay figs along Railway Place, probably planted between about 1880 and 1900, and palms along Mitchell Street. They stand on public railway land, so their care isn't a homeowner's job.

By our count from the City of Greater Bendigo's open tree dataset (November 2024), council manages 3,023 street and park trees in Quarry Hill, led by red ironbark (314) and mugga ironbark (271), with Sydney apple gum and spotted gum next. Peel Street has the most, followed by Carpenter Street.

The Solomon Gully bush edge

By our calculation from Vicmap parks data, about 17.4 hectares of the Solomon Gully Nature Conservation Reserve lie inside Quarry Hill, behind Paterson Street, Bentley Terrace, Houston Street and Tennyson Street. The draft Trethowan history says the reserve followed local campaigns to protect bushland and wax-flower habitat.

The reserve and some nearby land are in Schedule 2 of the Vegetation Protection Overlay, where removing or lopping native vegetation needs a permit, and in Schedule 2 of the Environmental Significance Overlay. By our calculation about 57 Quarry Hill addresses fall inside those overlays, mostly on Adam Street and Bentley Terrace. Check VicPlan before removing any tree there.

About half of Quarry Hill's land, but only about a quarter of its addresses, is in the designated bushfire prone area, including parts of Paterson Street, Bentley Terrace, Houston Street and Eadie Street. Only homes inside it that were built or approved before 10 September 2009 get the planning scheme's 10-metre tree exemption.

What we do in Quarry Hill

• 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 Quarry Hill

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 Flora Hill
• Tree removal in Golden Square
• Tree removal in Spring Gully
• Tree removal in Bendigo

Common questions