Land and block clearing in the Dandenong Ranges

Blackberry

Blackberry is a declared noxious weed in the Port Phillip and Western Port catchment, which takes in these hills, and landowners must control it. The overlays don't need a permit to remove a declared noxious weed. Yarra Ranges' landscape overlays also let species on the council's environmental weeds list go without one.

Blackberry regrows from its crowns, so one cut won't finish it. Plan on going back.

Checked 8 October 2026 against Agriculture Victoria: blackberry, Victoria Planning Provisions, Clause 42.03 (Significant Landscape Overlay), Victoria Planning Provisions, Clause 42.02 (Vegetation Protection Overlay), Victoria Planning Provisions, Clause 42.01 (Environmental Significance Overlay), Victoria Planning Provisions, Clause 44.01 (Erosion Management Overlay) and Yarra Ranges Planning Scheme, Schedule 1 to Clause 42.03 (SLO1).

Native vegetation is more than trees

In the planning scheme, native vegetation means plants indigenous to Victoria: trees, and also shrubs, herbs and grasses. The state's native vegetation clause needs a permit to remove it, dead plants included, with these exceptions among others:

• Land under 0.4 ha, counting any land next to it that you also own.
• Regrowth under 10 years old on land that was lawfully cleared, unless it came back after a fire, flood or other natural disaster. Bracken is exempt as regrowth whatever its age.
• Dead native vegetation, except a standing dead tree 40 cm or more across at 1.3 m.

The overlays are a separate test, and on a hills block they are usually the stricter one. Yarra Ranges' SLO1 needs a permit for native vegetation of any size, a shrub as much as a tree, but exempts regrowth under 10 years on lawfully cleared land. Cardinia's SLO1 sets no size limit, and exempts seedlings and regrowth under five years on cleared land kept for cultivation or pasture. Knox's environmental overlays exempt seedlings and regrowth under three years on land kept as pasture, crops or garden.

Checked 8 October 2026 against Victoria Planning Provisions, Clause 73.01 (general terms), Victoria Planning Provisions, Clause 52.17 (native vegetation), Yarra Ranges Planning Scheme, Schedule 1 to Clause 42.03 (SLO1), Cardinia Planning Scheme, Schedule 1 to Clause 42.03 (SLO1) and Knox Planning Scheme, Schedule 3 to Clause 42.01 (ESO3).

Around the house and along the fence

In a Bushfire Prone Area, around a house built before 10 September 2009, the state's 10/30 rule lets you clear everything except trees within 30 m, whatever the overlays say. In the Bushfire Management Overlay that reaches 50 m. The same clause lets you clear along a boundary fence to a combined width of 4 m across both sides. The conditions in full.

Checked 8 October 2026 against Victoria Planning Provisions, Clause 52.12 (bushfire protection exemptions).

Steep blocks

Where Yarra Ranges' Erosion Management Overlay applies, removing vegetation needs a permit, apart from trees 50 cm or less around the trunk, anything within 2 m of a building, and dead vegetation where the ground is reinstated. Clearing a slope back to bare soil is what the overlay exists to prevent. If your property report lists it, talk to the council before a slope is cleared.

Get a free property report from VicPlan to see which overlays cover your block.

Checked 8 October 2026 against Yarra Ranges Planning Scheme, Schedule to Clause 44.01 (EMO).

Burning it, or chipping it

The CFA declares a Fire Danger Period for each council area, and during it you need a permit to burn off. Outside it, the council's local laws decide. Yarra Ranges puts each property in an urban, bushland or rural category, by address, with different rules for each, and asks for every burn to be registered.

The other way is to chip it on the spot. The chips stay on the block as mulch, and nothing has to be burnt or carted away.

Checked 8 October 2026 against CFA: burning off and Yarra Ranges Council: burning off.

When you ask for a quote

Tell a local arborist roughly how much ground there is, what is growing on it, whether a machine can get in, and whether you want the material chipped and left or taken away. Photos from a couple of angles help more than a description.