Tree work around Lake Haven and the northern lakes

The northern end of the Coast

Lake Haven sits between Budgewoi Lake and the Wyong to Doyalson corridor, at the centre of a cluster of flat, low-lying suburbs — Charmhaven, Kanwal, Gorokan, Budgewoi, Blue Haven, San Remo — that filled out from the 1970s onwards.

It is easy country to work in. The ground is flat, the streets are wide, the blocks are regular, and a truck and chipper can usually get within a few metres of the tree. That keeps labour hours down and makes this one of the more reasonably priced parts of the Coast for comparable work.

Wet ground, shallow roots

The catch is drainage. Much of this area is low, close to the lakes, and slow to dry out. Broad-leaved paperbark, swamp mahogany and casuarina are the natives that suit it, and they all root shallow because the water table stops them going deeper.

The characteristic local failure is windthrow — the whole tree over on its side, root plate lifted, rather than a limb down. It happens after rain rather than in the worst of the wind, and it happens to trees that looked healthy. If a large tree on wet ground develops a new lean, or the soil lifts on one side of the base, treat it as urgent.

Reducing crown sail area genuinely helps here. There is only so much anchorage available, so taking weight and wind load out of the top is one of the few effective preventive measures.

Estate trees coming of age

The housing went in through the 1970s and 80s and so did the gardens. Liquidambar, camphor laurel, jacaranda, cocos and queen palms, and a generous scattering of eucalypts planted far too close to houses.

Four decades on, the recurring jobs are clearance pruning off roofs and gutters, palm removals and tidies, root problems in old drains and driveways, and the removal of camphor laurel — which is an environmental weed, roots aggressively, and suckers from the stump after grinding.

Council's vegetation provisions still apply. Weed species over the size thresholds generally still need a permit, even though approval is normally straightforward. The approval guide covers where the lines sit.

Lopping versus pruning

The suburb name attached to this page says "loppers", so it is worth being clear about what that word means. Reduction and thinning done properly — cuts at the right point, sail area removed, structure kept — is good work and it keeps trees on this wet, exposed ground safer.

Cutting a eucalypt back to stubs is not. It produces a mass of weakly attached regrowth from dormant buds, that regrowth is heavier and less secure each year, and you end up paying twice. If a tree needs that much removed, ask whether removal is the more honest answer.

Getting it done

Flat ground and good access mean it pays to bundle jobs onto one visit — trees, palms and stump grinding together. Do the planned work in autumn or winter. Nearby Toukley and Wyong have their own notes, and the service area index covers the rest.