TIMBERRRRRR!

Once all the council red tape was done and dusted, at last I could get the dead tree removed, so the garden build could progress. It's a tricky tree to remove as it really is four trees in one, with four large main trunks that meet in the middle to form a "mega tree". It straddles the southern border of the property with the fence line actually going through the middle of the tree!

I engaged Taylor's Tree Removal in Melbourne to take out the tree and grind the stump down, as well as take out a couple of other trees (designated as "unprotected" by the local council of course!) nearer the circular paved area. From memory it was around $1,200 for the three trees to be removed, which was pretty good value and they have a very good reputation.

On removal day the team arrived on time and set up to scale the tree armed with chainsaws. (Notice in the picture below that the weeds have taken hold again whilst waiting for the council approval!)

Watching these guys shimmy up the tree (in the rain mind you) was an amazing sight. They set up their truck on the opposite side of the fence where they had a giant nuclear powered mulcher (well it sounded like it was nuclear powered!) on the back of the truck, and everything went down the gullet of the hungry beast to be quickly turned into wood chips! It didn't seem to matter how big the logs were, they were swallowed up and spat out the other side.

Up Up and Away!

Finally all the branches disappeared and all that was left was the stump below, which this guy made quick work of with a giant chainsaw. The whole thing was over and done with in about 1/2 an hour. They came back the next day and ground down the stump to nothing but wood chips.In fact so many wood chips came from just the stump, it allowed me to mulch the entire front yard with it! That was one BIG tree!

More Power! Grrrr!

After months of waiting it was all cleared out and gone! I ran some wire and threw a tarpaulin over the gap in the fence left by the departure of the dead tree, until I get a chance to fix it up properly later.

Now that the tree was finally and really, truly, removed; the project could at last move on!

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The Pain of Dealing with Local Government Bureaucracy!

So let me tell you about this tree we had, and how it relates to the decking to be built.

As I said in an earlier post, all of the "trees of significance" in the housing estate are under a "heritage protection layer" which is managed by the local council. What this means is that if you do anything to any of those trees the council will come down on you like a ton-of-bricks and fine you using a formula based on the thickness of the branches you have cut on any of these trees. There is also an inspection regime, where the council can come onto your property every couple of years and check the trees to make sure you are looking after them. It's a pretty tight (and in my opinion draconian) regime that is meant to stop speculators buying up blocks of land that have trees, cutting them down, and then selling them again for more than they brought them. The fine system makes it prohibitive (and strangled in council red tape) to do so.

Now we had an issue that one of the trees on the property was dead. 

One Dead Tree

It wasn't just pinin'! Its passed on! This tree was no more! The tree has ceased to be! It had expired and gone to meet 'is maker! Bereft of life, it rests in peace! Its kicked the bucket and shuffled off this mortal coil, run down the curtain and joined the bleedin' choir invisible!! THIS IS AN EX-TREE!! 

Not so according to the council. To them it's a "protected" dead tree.

Now in order to get a "protected" dead tree "unprotected" you have to go through a number of hoops. First up you have to get an arborist report to confirm that the tree is in fact "dead". We used an arborist recommended by the council as I thought it would smooth the waters if it came from someone they were used to dealing with. While the arborist was at it, I got him to check the large Cypress, as in order to build the back deck I was going to need to trim the lower branches of the tree, so I may as well put both trees on the request. One inspection to remove the dead tree, one to trim the other. $300 per tree.

Cha-ching! Arborist report = $600. 
Then lodge a planning permit with the council. 
Cha-ching! Planning permit = $500. 
Attached to the planning permit needs to be the tree removal permit. 
Cha-ching! Tree removal permit = $150. 

So I am going to be out $1,250 without even putting a saw to the tree yet! This is just for permission to put the saw to a dead tree.

After all the permits were lodged the days turned into weeks, the weeks into months. Checking with the council at least on a weekly basis, I was given the standard line "the application is being assessed". 

Finally after six months the council came back to me:

Council Officer - "What's this about a deck?"
Me - "What deck?"
Council Officer - "Your arborists report refers to building a deck"
Me - "It does?"
Council Officer - "Yes, your request to prune the large cypress tree states that you want to trim the lower branches to enable to construction of said deck"
Me - "So it does! What does that mean for getting rid of the dead tree?"
Council Officer - "Well you'll need to amend the planning permit and include details on the construction of the deck"
Me - "What kind of details?"
Council Officer - "It will require all the planning and construction details, what it's going to be made of, where it's going to sit, where the post holes are, how it's attached to the dwelling etc. all in triplicate with the amended permit fee" (Cha-ching!) 
Me - "$&@K!" (after I got off the phone of course)

You see I wasn't actually there when the arborist came around to inspect the tree, my wife was. When the arborist asked why we wanted to remove the lower branches of the cypress tree she unknowingly responded "so we can build a deck", which the arborist duly noted and included on the report, which I didn't read in any great detail. Silly me.

To cut a very tortuous story shorter, four more months went by after creating plans and lodging more requests, and over $2,000 spent, I finally got the planning permit from the council to:

1. Remove the dead tree (yay! "but must be replaced with a similar cypress species" boo!)
2. Prune the lower branches of the large cypress ("but only by a qualified arborist")
3. Permission from the planning department to build the back deck within the protected tree zone ("but a building permit would be required from the building department" and a whole bunch of other conditions about protecting the tree roots etc.) 

HALELUYA!

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Well I said I had a plan..

So here is the plan! First up let's look at the block. North is to the bottom of the page, south the top. East is left, and west is right!

The house is a double story rendered brick veneer house sitting on a roughly 760 sqm block. The yard area is made up of the southern side of the block, what we call the "side yard", and a large area to the rear of the house, aka the "back yard". The back yard is dominated by a large substantial Monterey Cypress pine tree, and there is also a further row of large cypress trees along the southern border of the block, one of which (the biggest of course) is very much dead. More on the adventures of getting rid of a dead tree in a later post! 

All the major trees in the estate are under what is known as a Heritage Protection Layer, meaning "hands off", "don't touch", "don't even think about it!". There's even a fine system based on the thickness of any branch sawn. The more centimeters = more dollars, so above all the trees must be protected. I guess we are just lucky to be blessed with seven of them on our block! Ha! If you look at the large circle that represents the cypress, you'll see an even larger dotted line circle. This represents the "protection zone" around the tree where one is not allowed to build without permission, or else. It also takes up most of my back yard!

In the south eastern corner of the block there is also a hedge of trees that were planted when the estate was built. These are included on a covenant for the block and as such, also cannot be touched. You'll see them drawn in the picture below.

With all this in mind, I put pen to paper and came up with the grand plan.

Each of the numbered items on the plan that represents a section of work that needs to be completed. Generally they are also listed on the order that they need to be completed in owing to access to the block.

1. Circle paving: This is a circular paved area made up of sandstone "crazy paving". There is a circle in the middle which is to have some form of mosaic tiling where a steel fire pit will sit. Seating will be around the edge of the area, and on the northern border of the block will be an area to accommodate a wood-fired pizza oven. Delicious!
2. Back Lawn: This is a large lawned area. The area is "big enough for a kid to kick a footy around or have a game of cricket" as we say in Australia
3. Steps: This is a short set of steps to link the lower circle paving to the higher level of the lawn
4. Stone wall: This stone wall runs the length of the southern side of the house and splits the side into two levels. The upper level retains in all the large trees and the fence, creating a lower leveled area, level with the house
5. Side paving: This is another sandstone "crazy paved" area linking where the back deck will go (item 12!) to a path to link the side yard to another side deck
6. Path: This is a "meandering" loose packed stone path heading up the side yard. It features large wide curves to accommodate garden beds on either side
7. Retaining wall: This is a reasonably high retaining wall of about 1 metre. It will also have a large screen fence in front to separate the "utility" area of the garden from the more formal areas
8. Steps: These steps join the side deck area up to the higher utility area. They are also "crazy paved"
9. Clothes line: The old rotary hills hoist clothes line goes here surrounded by a loose packed stone area in the middle of a lawn
10. Tank: This is a rain water tank between the garage wall on the north side and the new retaining wall
11. Side deck: this is a large 30 odd sqm decked area dominated by a large water feature on the southern side that aligns with the double doors into the front living room of the house. The deck also features substantial garden beds around the edge to "blend" it into the surrounding area. There will also be a high garden sculpture featured just in front of the steps, to give a focal point when looking up west from the bottom of the garden, as well as a lit up focal point visible from the dining area beside it
12. The back deck. This is the big one! 75 sqm of multi-level decking to join the side and bottom yards to the door at the back of the house, and also the front of the house via the existing fence and gate on the northern side. There will be a landing from the back door, leading down some steps to the deck proper, and another set of steps leading down to the lawn area
13. Bottom steps: These steps will be integrated into the embankment to link the deck to the circular paved area below

So there you have it. Quite an ambitious plan! At this point I am planning on Stefan doing all the hard scaping (paving, stone walls etc.) and I'll look after the decking and fencing myself. Let's see how it goes!