You may need Council’s permission to prune or remove trees on your property.
You do not need permission to prune or remove trees on your property that are:
- on the exempt trees list
- already approved to be removed or pruned as part of a Development Consent.
You do need permission to prune or remove trees that are any of the following:
- more than 5 metres in height
- has a trunk diameter of 30cm or more, measured at ground level
- has branches that are more than 10cm in diameter (for pruning)
- has large roots that you want to prune
- dead or dying.
Note that different rules may apply for palm trees and hedges.
Please download Managing Trees in Wollongong - A Customer Guide PDF, 1008.02 KB to learn more.
There are two ways to get approval from Council to prune or remove a tree:
- Apply for a Tree Permit. Use the button at the bottom of this page to apply It can take around 28 working days for your application to be processed.
- Get permission through a Development Application. Use this option to prune or remove a tree as part of work for a proposed development, like a house, extension, granny flat, pool or garage.
If you have questions, call us on (02) 4227 7111.
If the tree you want to prune is on a neighbour’s property, see our Issues with Neighbours’ Trees page.
You can read more about what we consider when assessing a tree application in our Tree Management Policy PDF, 188.49 KB.