About us
The people behind Treetops
A small, qualified Canberra crew that has been looking after this city’s trees since 1999 — from suburban back yards to the National Gallery.
Since 1999
27 years up Canberra’s trees
Treetops started working on Canberra trees in 1999. In that time the city’s urban forest has gone from young to mature — and a lot of it is now at the age where things start to fail.
The suburbs planted in the sixties and seventies were filled with fast-growing eucalypts, pines, poplars and elms. Those trees are now big. Many are magnificent and worth keeping for another fifty years with the right pruning. Some are quietly hollowing out over a bedroom roof. Knowing the difference is the entire job.
That is what Ben does on a quote. Not a sales pitch — a read of the tree: how it is built, where the weight sits, what the wood is doing, what happens to it in a Canberra westerly. Then a straight recommendation and a fixed price.
A Treetops climber working the canopy of an oak at the ANU in winter.
What you actually get
The bits that separate an arborist from a bloke with a chainsaw
Qualified arborists
Trained in arboriculture, not just tree felling. That means pruning cuts placed to let the tree seal properly, load calculated before a limb is rigged, and defects read before anyone goes up the rope.
Full public liability cover
Insured for the work we do, and we will send the certificate of currency on request before anything starts. If a contractor hesitates when you ask for it, that tells you something.
We know the ACT rules
The Urban Forest Act 2023 changed what is protected in Canberra. Approvals are the property owner’s to arrange, but Ben will tell you when he thinks you need one rather than letting you find out the hard way.
Our own gear, off site the same day
Truck, chipper and rigging kit come with us. Green waste and timber leave with us. You are not left with a pile on the nature strip waiting for a second contractor.
Taking a stem down beside sculptures, with the ground cordoned off below.
The institutional work
What the National Gallery and the ANU taught us
Working on those sites forces a level of discipline that most residential jobs never demand. Exclusion zones and signage before a rope goes up. Nothing dropped — every piece lowered under control. Sculpture, paths and irrigation protected. Site handed back clean, every day, not just at the end.
None of that gets switched off when we pull into a driveway in Curtin. It is simply how the crew works now.
If a job is worth doing on a heritage site under public scrutiny, it is worth doing the same way in your back yard.
Straight answers
What we will and won’t do
We will
- Tell you when a tree can be saved with pruning instead of removed
- Tell you straight if we think the tree needs approval
- Give you a fixed price that includes the clean-up
- Send our insurance certificate if you ask
- Turn up when we said we would
We won’t
- Top or lop a healthy tree because it is quicker — it wrecks the tree and creates weak regrowth
- Talk you into removing something that only needs a prune
- Quote low and add extras once the truck is in your driveway
- Touch a protected tree without the right approval in place
- Leave you with a pile of timber and a mess
Want a straight opinion on your tree?
No obligation, no pressure. Ben will tell you what he would do if it were his.