Mount Coolum
Tree removal in Mount Coolum
Tree removal, pruning and fire-season clean-ups in Mount Coolum, for homes on the mountain's lower slopes and along the national park edge.
Tree work in Mount Coolum
A rhyolite dome above the houses
Queensland Parks says Mount Coolum began as molten magma pushed up into softer sandstone. As the sandstone wore away, what stayed standing was a hard erosion-resistant rhyolite, the dome above the houses. On the rocky lower slopes a tree can have little soil under it, so its roots run wide and shallow, a grinder can strike stone near the surface, and a big tree on thin ground is more likely to blow over in a storm.
The mountain is national park, and the parks service says everything within the national park is protected. The park is also mapped as a Local Heritage Place in council's planning scheme. Among its plants is the endangered Mt Coolum she-oak, found only in this area, where it grows as a low, dense heath. So a tree or limb on the park side of the fence is left to the parks service, and work on a neighbouring block keeps its cuttings, machinery and grindings on the private side.
Services in Mount Coolum
Thin soil, hard rock and the park boundary
How it works
What happens after you get in touch
The council question is answered before the price, and nothing is booked until you have the quote in writing and have said yes to it.
- 1
Tell us about the tree
The suburb, what the tree stands near and what you would like done with it.
- 2
Someone comes to look
A tree contractor who covers your area sees the tree, the access and whatever is underneath it.
- 3
The council position is checked
Lot size, how close the tree is to the house and the mapping on the block decide whether an application comes first.
- 4
Quoted in writing
Scope, timber, stump and date set out on one page. Nothing is booked until you accept it.
Mount Coolum questions
Fire on the mountain behind the houses
How big have fires on the mountain been?
The parks service's fire history maps a burnt area of about 51.6 hectares at the general location Mt Coolum, recorded in 2016. With bushland on that scale burning directly above homes, fire-wise tree work before each fire season is worth doing: dead trees and dead limbs taken out, and low branches lifted.
How near the houses has fire come?
Right behind them. Fire records for the park show a fire in its south eastern corner between Eastern Court and Wales Court, and another in its Mt Coolum section between Dharalee Court and Wales Court. For homes backing onto the park, dead or damaged trees along the boundary are worth having assessed.
Is the park edge burnt on purpose?
Yes, and often. The parks service lists a burn of about 2.91 hectares on the park's northern edge along the urban interface in 2019, and burns of the same size in 2021 and from 2023 to 2026. Homes there sit in an actively managed fire zone, so it pays to keep branches off the roof and out of the gutters between burns.
