Storm damage and fallen trees in the Dandenong Ranges

Who to ring first

000

If anyone is hurt or trapped, or a life is in danger.

VICSES, 132 500

A tree that has come down on your home or car, or is stopping you getting in or out of your home. VICSES doesn't cut down trees that are still standing or clear away debris. It sends those jobs to a tradesperson.

A power line down

Stay at least 8 m from it and from anything it touches, about two car lengths. Ring the electricity distributor's fault line. AusNet Services is 13 17 99, and Energy Safe Victoria lists the others.

Checked 8 October 2026 against VICSES: what we do and Energy Safe Victoria: storms and energy safety.

What you can cut without a permit

Every overlay in the hills, whether landscape, vegetation, environmental or erosion, lets you remove vegetation that is an immediate risk of injury or of damage to property. So does the state's native vegetation clause. Only the part that is the risk can go: a split limb hanging over the roof, say, but not the sound trunk it came from.

The rest of the tree is under your overlay's normal rules. If it needs to come down too, your suburb's page and the permit guide say whether that needs a permit.

Take photos before anything is cut, of the damage and of the whole tree. They show why the part that went had to go, and your insurer may ask for them.

Checked 8 October 2026 against 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 Victoria Planning Provisions, Clause 52.17 (native vegetation).

Leave the cutting to someone with the gear

A fallen tree is often still under load. A trunk pinned under another, or a limb bent against the roof, can spring when it is cut. Stay off the roof and out from under a hanging limb, and ask a local arborist to look at it.

If branches are on or tangled in a power line, leave them for the distributor. Energy Safe Victoria's rules for working near overhead lines need the network operator's permission within 3 m of the line, and a registered spotter from 3 to 6.4 m.

Checked 8 October 2026 against Energy Safe Victoria: No Go Zones and Energy Safe Victoria: trees and vegetation.

Dead and damaged trees afterwards

A storm can leave a tree dead or dying rather than down. What happens next depends on the overlay, because they treat dead trees differently:

• Yarra Ranges' landscape overlays don't need a permit to remove dead vegetation. Where ESO1 also applies, a standing dead tree more than 1.3 m around the trunk still needs one.
• Cardinia's SLO1, ESO1 and vegetation overlays exempt dead vegetation only once a council officer has assessed it as suitable for removal, and never a standing dead tree 40 cm or more across. SLO4, in the Menzies Creek valley, has no dead-tree exemption.
• Knox's landscape overlays and ESO3 exempt dead trees, but not a standing dead tree at or over their size limit: 0.4 m around under the landscape overlays, 40 cm across under ESO3. ESO2, VPO1 and VPO4 list no dead-tree exemption.
• Maroondah's landscape overlays exempt a tree that a suitably qualified person declares dead, dying or dangerous. Its VPO1 needs a permit for dead or fallen trees that give native animals a place to nest or roost.

Checked 8 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), Cardinia Planning Scheme, Schedule 1 to Clause 42.03 (SLO1), Cardinia Planning Scheme, Schedule 4 to Clause 42.03 (SLO4), Knox Planning Scheme, Schedule 2 to Clause 42.03 (SLO2), Knox Planning Scheme, Schedule 3 to Clause 42.01 (ESO3), Knox Planning Scheme, Schedule 2 to Clause 42.01 (ESO2), Maroondah Planning Scheme, Schedule 1 to Clause 42.03 (SLO1) and Maroondah Planning Scheme, Schedule 1 to Clause 42.02 (VPO1).

Storms in the hills

On the night of 9 June 2021, south-easterly winds gusting over 100 km/h brought down thousands of trees across Melbourne's east, and the Dandenongs were among the worst hit. South-easterlies are rare there. 23,000 homes lost power for up to five days, and around 1,700 were without it for more than a month.

A tree that came through a storm standing can still be hurt: a split fork, a crack near the base, roots lifted on one side. Have it looked at before the next one.

Checked 8 October 2026 against Wikipedia: Extreme weather events in Melbourne.