Tree removal and lopping in Spring Gully

By our calculation from Victorian Government map data, about 99% of Spring Gully is a designated bushfire prone area and about 95% is in the Bushfire Management Overlay. Bendigo Tree Removal prunes, removes and clears trees across Spring Gully, from Retreat Road and Spring Gully Road out to the bush along Mandurang Road.

At the 2021 Census, about 88% of Spring Gully homes were separate houses and about 41% were owned outright, with a median age of 45. On those garden blocks we plan for a big gum close to the roof: climbed on ropes, cut back a limb at a time and lowered clear of the house.

Park and reservoir on Spring Gully's edges

Much of Spring Gully's boundary is bush. By our calculation from Vicmap parks data, two blocks of Greater Bendigo National Park (about 94 and 53 hectares) lie inside the suburb near Mandurang Road, Broad Parade, Keogh Drive and Palm Avenue. Blocks of Bendigo Regional Park totalling about 140 hectares sit near Lawson, Kendall, Burns and Carpenter streets.

The state's place names gazetteer puts One Tree Hill and the Spring Gully Reservoir inside the suburb. The state's 2023–24 water accounts list the reservoir under Coliban Water, holding raw and recycled water, with no customers supplied directly from it.

Schedule 2 of the Vegetation Protection Overlay, titled Significant Vegetation, names One Tree Hill among the public reserves it covers. By our calculation it takes in about 13.5% of Spring Gully, mostly public land, but about 20 addresses fall inside it on Belle Vue Road, Mandurang Road, Osborne Street, Wattle Drive and Faugh-A-Ballagh Road. On those blocks, removing, destroying or lopping any native vegetation needs a permit.

Overlays to check on a Spring Gully block

By our calculation, about a quarter of Spring Gully is under one of the vegetation-related overlays. Two blocks in the same street can carry different ones, so we go through the planning property report with you before quoting. The ones that reach into residential streets are:

• ESO2, groundwater recharge. About 419 addresses are in Schedule 2 of the Environmental Significance Overlay, mainly on Mandurang Road and Broad Parade, plus Spring Hill Drive, Bettalan Court, Edwina Court and Francliff Avenue. Check your planning property report on VicPlan before removing any tree.
• ESO1, waterway protection. About 113 addresses, along parts of Retreat Road, Palm Avenue, Grenoble Close, Oasis Gardens and Keogh Drive.
• SLO1, bush garden areas. About 222 addresses around Kendall Street, Burns Street, Shakespeare Street and Sherman Crescent, where a permit is needed to remove, destroy or lop native vegetation.

Clearing for fire season in Spring Gully

Because nearly every Spring Gully address is in the bushfire prone area, the Clause 52.12 bushfire exemptions reach most homes here, provided the home was built or approved before 10 September 2009. DEECA's fire history layer shows fuel-reduction burns near Allott Court and Mandurang Road on 28 April 2021 and 5 April 2023. What the exemptions allow depends on distance:

• Trees can be removed or lopped without a planning permit only within 10 metres of the home, or in the strip along an eligible boundary fence.
• Shrubs, grass and other vegetation, but not trees, can be cleared out to 30 metres.
• In the Bushfire Management Overlay, which by our calculation takes in about four Spring Gully addresses in five, that non-tree clearing extends to 50 metres, with its own date conditions.
• Along a boundary fence built before 10 September 2009, both sides combined can be cleared to a width of 4 metres. CFA says to get your neighbour's written permission before clearing on their side.

River red gums and goldfields ground

By our count from the City of Greater Bendigo's open tree dataset (November 2024), River Red Gum makes up about 29% of the 4,809 street and park trees council manages in Spring Gully, with grey box next at about 15%. Whittaker Street and Spring Gully Road have the most.

River red gums grow into big, heavy-limbed trees. Parks Victoria warns that trees can drop limbs, or fall entirely, without warning, and that hot, windy or severe weather calls for extra care. If a council gum overhangs your roof, ask the City to inspect it. If the tree is yours, we can look at pruning it back.

The Victorian Heritage Inventory lists 15 historical sites inside Spring Gully, including the New Chum Goldfields Mine and Battery and the Diamond Hill Township, and the New Chum Goldfields reserve on Diamond Hill Road is also in the Heritage Overlay. Most appear to be on park or reserve land. If a stump near an old mine site needs grinding or digging out, check with Heritage Victoria before the ground is disturbed.

What we do in Spring Gully

• 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 Spring Gully

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 Strathfieldsaye
• Tree removal in Quarry Hill
• Tree removal in Kangaroo Flat
• Tree removal in Bendigo

Common questions