Tree removal in Belgrave Heights
Belgrave Heights is bush with houses in it, along a wildlife corridor. Here even a dead tree can need a permit.
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Ask for a quoteSherbrooke Forest. Photo: Haworthia Ihlathi, CC BY-SA 4.0
The rule in Belgrave Heights
Our 25-point sample around Belgrave Heights put 16 points inside the suburb, and 15 of those were under SLO1, the ranges overlay. Ten were also under ESO1. Between them, a Yarra Ranges permit is needed for native vegetation of any size, and for any tree whose trunk is more than:
- 1.1 m
- around, measured 1.3 m up (about 35 cm across). That is SLO1's line. ESO1 leaves exotic trees alone.
- 4 m
- SLO1 and ESO1 both stop 4 m from a building.
- 10 m
- The 10/30 rule applies to older houses. All 16 points were in a Bushfire Prone Area and the Bushfire Management Overlay. How far each distance reaches.
One point, on the Belgrave side, was under the township overlay SLO22 instead: trees over 50 cm around, 2 m exempt. Your property report says which overlay your block carries.
Get a free property report from VicPlan to see which overlays cover your block.
Checked 7 October 2026 against Yarra Ranges Planning Scheme, Schedule 1 to Clause 42.03 (SLO1), Yarra Ranges Planning Scheme, Schedule 1 to Clause 42.01 (ESO1), Yarra Ranges Planning Scheme, Schedule 22 to Clause 42.03 (SLO22) and Victoria Planning Provisions, Clause 52.12 (bushfire protection exemptions).
A wildlife corridor through the suburb
Monbulk Creek runs through Belgrave Heights as part of a biolink, a habitat corridor joining the Dandenong Ranges National Park to Lysterfield Lake Park. ESO1 is the overlay Yarra Ranges uses for corridors like it, and it treats dead trees differently from SLO1. SLO1 lets dead vegetation go. ESO1 keeps a permit on a standing dead tree more than 1.3 m around. Yellow-bellied and sugar gliders, possums and powerful owls are all recorded here.
Messmate grows through most of the area, with blackwood, silver wattle and other eucalypts. All of them grow here naturally, so SLO1 covers them at any size.
Checked 7 October 2026 against Wikipedia: Belgrave Heights, Yarra Ranges Planning Scheme, Schedule 1 to Clause 42.01 (ESO1) and Yarra Ranges Planning Scheme, Schedule 1 to Clause 42.03 (SLO1).
Birdsland and the 2009 fire
Five of the 16 points fell in Birdsland, a 75-hectare bushland park once known as Birds' Paddock and bought by the old Shire of Sherbrooke in 1982. It is a heritage place with tree controls (HO119), but it is public land. In February 2009, two weeks after Black Saturday, a fire of about 300 hectares burned through the Birdsland area.
Away from the park, a few heritage places along Colby Drive and Park Drive also have tree controls: Collis House (HO115), Mount Heatherlea House (HO118), the Lockwood Memorial Union Church (HO34) and the Progress Hall (HO120). A tree on one of those needs a heritage permit whatever its size.
Checked 7 October 2026 against Wikipedia: Belgrave Heights and Yarra Ranges Planning Scheme, Schedule to Clause 43.01 (Heritage Overlay).
The rule next door
- Belgrave and Tecoma
- SLO22, the township overlay: 50 cm around and 2 m from a building. Six of our 25 points landed over the boundary in one or the other.
- Belgrave South and Selby
- SLO1 again. Selby adds an erosion overlay on its steep ground, at 50 cm and 2 m.
The permit guide sets out every council's rules.
Checked 7 October 2026 against Yarra Ranges Planning Scheme, Schedule 22 to Clause 42.03 (SLO22), Yarra Ranges Planning Scheme, Schedule 1 to Clause 42.03 (SLO1) and Yarra Ranges Planning Scheme, Schedule 3 to Clause 44.01 (EMO3).
Ask for a quote
Tell us where you are and what needs doing. We pass it to a local arborist who works in the hills. They ring you back to talk about the job.