Tree services in Queanbeyan and Jerrabomberra

Queanbeyan and Jerrabomberra sit minutes from the ACT border and we work there constantly. The important thing to understand is that once you cross the border, the ACT’s tree laws stop applying entirely.

NSW rules, not ACT rules

The Urban Forest Act 2023 is ACT legislation. It has no effect in Queanbeyan, Jerrabomberra, Karabar or Googong. Over the border, tree work is governed by New South Wales planning law and administered by Queanbeyan-Palerang Regional Council through its own local controls, rather than by the ACT Conservator of Flora and Fauna.

That means the ACT size thresholds — 8 m tall, 8 m canopy, 1 m trunk circumference — are not the test here, and neither is the ACT application process. Confirm the current local requirements with QPRC before you remove or heavily prune anything, because the consequences for getting it wrong still exist; they are simply a different authority’s consequences.

The council does not do tree work on private land itself, but it does regulate how trees on private property are managed. Its Trees on Private Land page sets out what applies, and the detail sits in the council’s development control plans, which differ between the former Queanbeyan and Palerang areas.

If you have read our ACT rules guide and assumed it applies to your Jerrabomberra block — it does not. Give us a ring and we will point you at the right process.

What the trees are like here

Old Queanbeyan

The established parts of Queanbeyan have genuinely old trees — this was a town well before Canberra existed. Big elms, poplars, willows and pines on riverside blocks, with all the structural issues that come with a century of growth and, often, a century of ad-hoc lopping.

The river corridor

Properties along the Queanbeyan River carry willows and poplars that grow fast, get very large, and have brittle wood. They shed limbs readily and their roots go looking for drains.

Jerrabomberra and Googong

Newer estates on what was grazing land. Retained paddock eucalypts stressed by construction, plus fast-growing garden and street plantings now reaching the neighbour’s roofline on compact blocks — the same pattern as Gungahlin.

Rural-residential blocks

Around the edges there are larger holdings with radiata pine windbreaks and remnant eucalypts. Those windbreaks were planted for a working purpose decades ago and are now tall, top-heavy and shallow-rooted — and they are frequently sitting directly upwind of the house.