Tree Removal in Nowra, Jervis Bay & Across the Shoalhaven

Start with the approval question, not the chainsaw

If you have moved to the Shoalhaven from Queensland or Western Australia, forget what you knew. In NSW, the tree in your own backyard at Nowra, Bomaderry, Sanctuary Point or Milton is very likely protected, and removing it without approval can be an expensive mistake. Shoalhaven City Council administers private tree work under Chapter G4 (Tree and Vegetation Management) of the Shoalhaven Development Control Plan 2014.

Here is the position as accurately as we can state it:

• Council's size definition of a tree is broadly a perennial woody plant that is taller than 5 metres, or has a crown wider than 5 metres, or a trunk circumference greater than 500mm measured 1 metre above the ground. Vegetation smaller than that on a residential block can generally be removed without approval.
• Zoning changes the answer. Protection is broadest across urban residential and village zones; in large-lot residential, rural, recreation, conservation and waterway zones, fewer trees are captured. Establish your zone before assuming anything.
• The Gordon Timbs 45 Degree Rule exempts removal or substantial pruning of a tree standing within 45 degrees of a lawfully approved building where it presents a risk. A trial from 16 August 2023 added notification steps; Council adopted Amendment No. 57 on 11 March 2025, reverting it to the pre-trial version and renaming it in memory of Gordon Timbs, a Shoalhaven resident killed by a falling tree in 1998 (Get Involved Shoalhaven).
• Where no exemption applies, application is made through the NSW Planning Portal. Council fees are listed at $192 for up to two trees or pruning, $316 for up to ten, and from $388 above that for 2025–26 (ABLIS).
• Street and nature-strip trees are Council's. Not yours, not ours. Report a problem tree in the road reserve to Council on 1300 293 111.

Controls and fees do change. Verify your specific tree with Council before work is booked — and be sceptical of anyone who tells you approval never matters.

When a tree genuinely has to go

Not every problem tree needs removing. Plenty are fixed with tree lopping or structural tree pruning. Removal is the right call when:

• The tree is dead or in irreversible decline — no live canopy, bark shedding in sheets, fungal brackets at the base or on major buttress roots.
• The root plate has moved. A fresh lean after heavy rain, cracked or heaved soil on the uphill side, exposed roots on a river-flat block at Terara or Shoalhaven Heads. That tree is already failing.
• It is a stem failure risk — a major co-dominant fork with included bark, a split from a previous storm, or a hollowed trunk.
• It is structurally too close to the house, especially a self-seeded gum that arrived on its own and is now above the roofline.
• The tree is wrong for the site — a forest-grown spotted gum on a suburban block that has since been cleared around it, now standing alone in the wind.
• Building or subdivision work requires it, in which case see land & block clearing.

How a removal runs on a Shoalhaven block

Access decides the method. A big gum with truck and chipper access at Nowra Hill is a different job from the same tree behind a Huskisson cottage with a 900mm side gate.

Sectional dismantling is the norm. A climber (or an EWP where there is room) works the tree down from the top, roping and lowering each section so nothing lands uncontrolled. Fences, pools, colorbond roofs, septic lines and Endeavour Energy service lines all stay intact.

Ground condition matters more than people expect. Deep alluvial silts along the Shoalhaven River flats hold water and will not carry heavy machinery after rain. Dune sand at Culburra Beach and Callala Bay grinds easily but gives shallow anchorage. Clay over sandstone up around Cambewarra and Bomaderry Creek locks roots in hard.

Species changes the plan. Blackbutt and spotted gum are heavy, dense and unforgiving of a sloppy rigging point. Bangalay near the coast can be brittle at the tips. Cabbage tree palms are their own discipline — see palm removal.

What is left when the crew drives off

The tree, the limbs and the debris go. Chips can stay on site as mulch if you want them, or be hauled out entirely — mulching & green waste removal covers both. What remains is the stump, and that is a separate mechanical job: stump grinding takes it below ground level so you can turf, pave, replant or build over it. Bundling grinding into the same visit is almost always cheaper than calling a machine back later.

Removal is available right across the region — from Berry and Kangaroo Valley through to Milton and Ulladulla, listed in full on areas we cover. Back to home.

Call (02) 4400 9336 for an inspected, itemised removal quote — including a straight answer on whether you need Council approval.