Tree removal in Gembrook
Gembrook is the end of the Puffing Billy line, and most of it sits under the railway's scenic corridor overlay. Here even firewood has a rule.
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Ask for a quoteDandenong Ranges. Photo: Uzman Naleer, CC BY-SA 4.0
The rule in Gembrook
Of the 25 points we sampled in Gembrook, 22 were under SLO1, Cardinia's overlay for the railway's scenic corridor. ESO1 covered 16 of them too. There is no minimum size in either.
- Any size
- Any vegetation needs a permit unless an exemption covers it, a farm windbreak as much as a garden tree.
- 6 m
- The 6 m exemption around an existing house applies only to lots under 0.4 ha. It won't reach a farm-sized block, and 16 of our points were Green Wedge farmland.
- 10 m
- The 10/30 rule for a house built or approved before 10 September 2009. Every point was bushfire-prone. How it works.
The Bushfire Management Overlay was at only 3 of the 25 points, so the wider 50 m clearing rule that goes with it reaches fewer houses here than in Cockatoo. SLO1 and ESO1 also exempt the part of a tree over a home's roof where cutting it is needed for fire protection, normal pruning and the listed environmental weeds. Dead trees need an officer's assessment before they go, and a standing dead tree 40 cm or more across always needs a permit.
Get a free property report from VicPlan to see which overlays cover your block.
Checked 7 October 2026 against Cardinia Planning Scheme, Schedule 1 to Clause 42.03 (SLO1), Cardinia Planning Scheme, Schedule 1 to Clause 42.01 (ESO1) and Victoria Planning Provisions, Clause 52.12 (bushfire protection exemptions).
The railway corridor
The line from Upper Ferntree Gully opened in December 1900 and carried timber, fruit trees and potatoes back to Melbourne. It closed in 1954, and Puffing Billy's full run from Belgrave to Gembrook resumed in 1998. SLO1's statement describes the corridor as a bush link from the Dandenong Ranges National Park through Wright Forest and Gembrook Park to Bunyip State Park, with rare plants such as the Emerald star bush along it.
Two of our points fell in the redwoods (HO37) and Gembrook Park (HO38), both on Gembrook Road and both with heritage tree controls. The Bhutan pines at the old station site on Main Street (HO61), the Algerian and hybrid oaks on Main Street (HO268) and the hybrid oaks on Redwood Road (HO258) have them too. A tree on a heritage place with tree controls needs a heritage permit.
Checked 7 October 2026 against Wikipedia: Gembrook, Cardinia Planning Scheme, Schedule 1 to Clause 42.03 (SLO1) and Cardinia Planning Scheme, Schedule to Clause 43.01 (Heritage Overlay).
Firewood on a farm
Gembrook was settled in 1873 for farming and timber, and more than 20 mills once worked the area. Fires in 1926 and 1939 burnt many of them. Most of the land we sampled is still farmland, in the Green Wedge zone.
SLO1 and ESO1 let an owner or occupier cut reasonable amounts of wood for their own use: firewood, fences on the same land, or craft. The exemption stops at any standing tree, alive or dead, 40 cm or more across at 1.3 m. It does not cover living native vegetation where the land in the same ownership is under 10 ha.
Checked 7 October 2026 against Wikipedia: Gembrook, Cardinia Planning Scheme, Schedule 1 to Clause 42.03 (SLO1) and Cardinia Planning Scheme, Schedule 1 to Clause 42.01 (ESO1).
In the township
Five of our points were residential zoning (NRZ1), where the state's canopy-tree rule applies. There, a tree 5 m or taller with a canopy at least 4 m wide needs a permit on a lot with a house when its trunk is within 6 m of the narrowest street frontage or 4.5 m of the rear boundary. One township point had no overlay at all, so on some blocks that rule may be the only one. The hills townships overlay DDO2 is about buildings and needs no permit for a tree.
Storms reach Gembrook too. In March 2012 one badly damaged Silverwells, a heritage-listed farm complex on Ure Road. Where a tree is an immediate risk of injury or damage, the overlays let the part that is the risk go without a permit.
Checked 7 October 2026 against Victoria Planning Provisions, Clause 52.37 (canopy trees), Cardinia Planning Scheme, Schedule 2 to Clause 43.02 (DDO2), Wikipedia: Gembrook, Victoria Planning Provisions, Clause 42.03 (Significant Landscape Overlay) and Victoria Planning Provisions, Clause 42.01 (Environmental Significance Overlay).
The rule next door
- Cockatoo and Nangana
- Cardinia's overlays again. Cockatoo is mostly VPO1, and Nangana is almost all ESO1.
- Hoddles Creek
- North, in Yarra Ranges. Its centre point is under SLO6, where native vegetation and trees over 1.1 m around need a permit.
The permit guide has each council.
Checked 7 October 2026 against Cardinia Planning Scheme, Schedule 1 to Clause 42.02 (VPO1), Cardinia Planning Scheme, Schedule 1 to Clause 42.01 (ESO1) and Yarra Ranges Planning Scheme, Schedule 6 to Clause 42.03 (SLO6).
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.