Hi, Trick. Hi, Murray.
What have you got for us today?
Plenty of work. You won’t be out of work today.
Got two jobs there.
The normal day is sort of a 7.30, 7 o’clock, 7.30 start until we’re finished.
Now that might be if we’re really lucky a two or three o’clock finish.
If we’re a bit unlucky, it might be a five or six o’clock finish.
OK. We’ll get the guys started.
OK. See ya.
Morning, guys. Good morning, Murray.
How are the saws? Got them all sharpened up and ready to go? Yeah, all ready.
There was no school of tree surgery in Western Australia when I came
here, so I depended on learning from the ground up from those around me.
OK, guys. Come on in and we’ll pick up the chipper. Thanks.
I’m also a member of the guild ... of the tree guild of Western
Australia and about 14 years ago we set up the guild and the first
thing we did was set up an educational program through TAFE so
you can do Years 1, 2 and 3 of horticulture and tree surgery.
Good morning, Daphne. Good morning, Murray.
Daphne, what we’re going to have to do is shorten it
back where those forks occur just above the fence.
We’ll prune at that point and up there where the breaks have
occurred, we’ll prune those out and clean the whole tree up.
It’ll look rather a skeleton at the end of the day but we know perfectly
well that it’ll come back in September to the kind of tree we want.
We’ll pollard that right back and again get a restart, OK?
Pretty much need to be an outdoor site type of person,
and secondly, you need to be pretty fit,
because you’ve got to be able to pull your own weight up on a rope.
You also don’t need to be at all afraid of heights.
There is a strict set of rules about how you climb
a tree and how you use a chainsaw at height.
This is a fabulous view.
All around we’ve got this sea of green, dotted with house roofs.
So often we go to the big cities in the world and we see nothing but roofs
and no trees and here in Perth, we have more trees per
head of population than anywhere else in the world.
Good day, Brian. Good day, Murray. How are you going?
Got some problems here?
Yeah, yeah. The gentleman here ... just brought you
down here so we could get this tree pruned up here.
It looks like it ... under prune and a bit off the top, mate.
The only comment I would like to make is that I
wouldn’t want the tree thinned out to the extent
that it looks like it’s been on a diet for
thirty years and spoil the look of the property.
We’re not going to leave a half-plucked chicken, if that’s what you mean.
That’s exactly what I mean. Well said.
Gaz...Umm,
leave the butt that’s holding this tree house in the tree.
I don’t like the idea of a tree house in the tree but never mind.
It’s bolted, and it’s firm and it’s stable for now.
We’re going to take it off across that angle which means
those two branches are going to have to come right out, OK?
Yeah, OK.
So you can simply use the pole saw to reduce the weight
of those and then we’ll do a neat cut as we go back.
Let’s go on round, Gaz. Yep.
We’re dealing with a very important part of the environment and people’s backyards
and trees are very personal and important to them, so they’ve got to look right.
We’ve gone from, well, a shapeless blob to something that’s really
quite wine glass shaped and allowing filtered light through.
His lawn’s going to grow much better after this.
Hi, Luke. Can you take it back now? Try and miss that strawy rubbish there.
We want ... this is good mulch...
we want it packed, as far back up there on the heap as you can.
When we moved here 20 years ago, my husband saved the tree.
It was very sick at the time
and he’s very attached to it and doesn’t really want to see it go, but I want to get rid of it so ...
Well, unfortunately, I’ve got to agree with you. It does have to go.
If only they realise that those trees are going to be 70 to 100 feet high within 15 years
and they’re just not the sort of tree that ought to be planted in the middle of a verge.
Hi, Trick.
Hi, Murray. What have you got for me? How was today? Aw, not bad, not bad.
I love working with trees. I love working in the environment. You’ve taken
something that was tatty or ugly and turned it into something beautiful.
Particularly if you can cure a problem and it grows back better next year.