Insights · Victoria
Field notes on trees, planning and the standards.
Short, practical pieces on how the arboricultural standards apply on real sites: what AS 4970:2025 changed, how a Council reads a tree protection plan, and what the evidence shows on common problems. Written for Councils, developers and the arborists who review the work.
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Insights
Technical pieces on the standards and the evidence behind everyday arboricultural work. New insights added regularly.
Amendment VC315: what changed in Clause 52.37 and the canopy standards, and the 4 metre test that splits the two
VC315 rewrote Clause 52.37 on 24 September 2026: a new canopy tree definition, canopy as a percentage of site area, deep soil scaled to the mature canopy, and a 4 m trunk test in the standards.
Read the article → Project reviewEncroachment is not impact: when existing conditions change the assessment of works near trees
The native vegetation guidelines deem a tree lost above 10 per cent NRZ encroachment unless an arborist report says otherwise. How existing road conditions change that assessment, and what an advisory committee accepted in 2026.
Read the article → Standards & regulationClause 52.37 Canopy Trees: what the clause requires after VC315, and where applications come unstuck
Clause 52.37 requires a permit to remove a canopy tree in most residential zones and sets a canopy cover percentage for the site. What counts, what Council can weigh, and the boundary tree trap.
Read the article → Project reviewThe driveway is a bridge: a Mordialloc Spotted Gum, twenty years on
In 2005 a Mordialloc development crossed half a Spotted Gum's root zone on a steel and timber bridge. Twenty years on, tree and driveway are both fine.
Read the article → Technical practiceTree protection is boring: directional drilling and NDD in the tree protection zone
When a service has to cross a tree's root zone, boring under it beats trenching through it. AS 4970:2025 now says so. The method, and its limits.
Read the article → Project reviewUplighting Frankston's Nepean Highway median trees without trenching the root zones
Frankston City Council wanted in-ground uplighting for the significant trees down the Nepean Highway median. We got it in without trenching a root zone.
Read the article → Standards & regulationClause 52.37 didn't switch off the overlays: how the tree controls now stack
Clause 52.37 didn't simplify tree controls in Victoria. It added one. On a site with an overlay, you now have two permit regimes on the same tree.
Read the article → Standards & regulationAS 4970:2025: what changed, and what your arborist's report should now show
AS 4970:2025 replaced the 2009 edition. What actually changed, and what a report prepared to the new standard should show.
Read the article → Technical practiceConstruction compaction and tree decline: what the evidence shows
Compaction reduces root growth and can drive tree decline, but the severity depends on degree, duration and species.
Read the article → Standards & regulationTPZ and NRZ under AS 4970:2025: what changed, what didn't
AS 4970:2025 introduced the Notional Root Zone but did not retire the Tree Protection Zone. Both are current, and they do different jobs.
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