Read this before you ring anybody
Every figure on this page is a 2026 planning range for the Perth metropolitan area, written to help you budget and to help you read a quote. None of it is an offer, and none of it is a price for your tree. A real number needs someone standing in your yard working out how the timber gets from where it is to where the truck is parked.
That is not a hedge. It is the whole point. In Fremantle, access decides the cost of a removal more than height, species or trunk diameter ever do.
The ranges
| Job | Range |
|---|---|
| Small tree, up to 5m, chipper can park beside it | $300 – $700 |
| Medium tree, 5 – 10m, straightforward access | $700 – $1,800 |
| Large tree, 10 – 20m, dismantled in sections and lowered | $1,800 – $5,000 |
| Very large, over 20m, or lifted out over a roof | $5,000 – $12,000+ |
| Dead or structurally unsound tree of any size | adds 20 – 50% |
| Item | Range |
|---|---|
| Elevated work platform, per day | $600 – $1,500 |
| Crane and operator, per day | $1,800 – $4,000 |
| Traffic management or street occupancy for a crane set-up | $500 – $1,500 |
| No truck or chipper access, everything hand-carried out | adds 30 – 60% |
| Extra green waste carted off rather than chipped on site | $150 – $500 |
| After-hours storm call-out to make safe | $400 – $900, removal quoted separately |
| Stump | Range |
|---|---|
| Under 300mm across | $100 – $250 |
| 300 – 600mm across | $250 – $500 |
| Over 600mm, or several stumps in one visit | $500 – $1,200 |
| Palm root plate | $300 – $900 |
The five things that make a Fremantle job expensive
Crane or elevated work platform hire. The biggest single line item when it appears. A crane earns its keep when the sections are too heavy to rig off the tree itself, when decayed timber will not take a climber, or when there is no ground route at all. It is dead money on a tree that could simply be dropped.
Narrow limestone-cottage lots and rear laneways. Much of the older housing stock here sits on tight blocks with a side setback barely wide enough to walk a wheelbarrow through, served by a rear laneway a chipper truck may not fit down. Where every piece of timber is carried by hand to the street, the job stops being about cutting and starts being about labour hours.
Power lines. A canopy with service conductors running through it changes the sequence, the clearances and sometimes the crew. If anything is touching or near a line, Western Power make it safe first on 13 13 51, and no quote means anything until they have.
Nowhere for the chipper. Brush that can go straight through a chipper into a truck is cheap to deal with. Brush that has to be dragged sixty metres, stacked on a verge and loaded by hand is not. This one item routinely separates two quotes by a thousand dollars.
Green waste volume. A mature marri or tuart produces a startling amount of material. Say up front what you want done with it: chip left on site for your garden beds costs least, trunk wood cut to rounds and stacked is next, and carting the lot away is dearest.
What sits under the tree matters as much as the tree
A pool, a glasshouse, a neighbour's patio, a limestone retaining wall or a shed roof under the drop zone means nothing free-falls. Every limb is tied off and lowered on a rigging line, which is slower and takes more people. An open back lawn with nothing under it is the cheapest ground a tree can stand on.
Three things to check in any written quote
- Is the stump in or out? See the table above, and read the stump grinding page for why Tamala limestone under shallow sand changes the depth you can actually get.
- Where does the green waste go? Chipped and left, stacked as firewood rounds, or carted. Three different numbers.
- Is council approval sorted? The permits page covers Fremantle, East Fremantle, Melville and Cockburn. A removal you were not allowed to do is the most expensive outcome on this page.
Palms are priced on a different basis
Do not read a tree range onto a palm. A Cocos is one of the cheapest things with a trunk to take out, from around $250, while a mature Canary Island date palm is one of the most expensive single-stem removals there is and runs from $2,500 well past $8,000 once crown weight, spines and machinery are counted. The reasons and the full breakdown are on the palm removal cost guide.
Where the money is worth spending
An arborist assessment before a removal quote is the cheapest money on this page when the tree might be savable — a crown reduction is a fraction of a removal. If the tree genuinely has to go, the removal page explains how sectional dismantling works and why it is priced the way it is. If it is already down, storm response is triage, not a booked job.
Crews cover Fremantle, East Fremantle and the surrounding Melville and Cockburn suburbs — the list is on the service areas page. Have your suburb, the rough height against the house, what is underneath and how a truck would get in ready, and ring 08 7741 1934.
Frequently asked questions
How much does it cost to remove a tree in Perth in 2026?
As a planning range, a small tree with chipper access beside it runs $300 to $700, a medium tree of five to ten metres $700 to $1,800, and a large tree dismantled in sections $1,800 to $5,000. Anything over twenty metres, or craned over a roof, starts at $5,000 and climbs. Access and disposal move those figures more than height does.
Why do two quotes for the same tree differ by thousands?
Usually because one crew priced the rigging and the other priced the trunk. A tree that can be felled and chipped beside the truck is a fraction of the same tree lowered piece by piece over a cottage roof with a hand-carry to the street. Check what each quote includes: stump, green waste, clean-up and council approval are the four things that quietly differ.
Is stump grinding included in a tree removal price?
Almost never. A removal quote normally ends at a flush cut near ground level, and the stump is a second machine and a second visit. Budget $100 to $250 for a stump under 300mm, $250 to $500 up to 600mm, and $500 to $1,200 for anything larger or for several stumps at once. Ask for it in writing either way.
Does a crane make a tree removal cheaper or dearer?
It depends on the alternative. Crane and operator runs roughly $1,800 to $4,000 a day around Perth, plus traffic management if it has to set up on the street. Against two full days of rigging and hand-carrying, a morning with a crane can come out level or cheaper. Where the tree could simply be dropped, a crane is money wasted.
Can I get a fixed price for tree removal over the phone?
For a small stump or a palm clean, sometimes. For a removal, no, and you should be wary of anyone who offers one. In Fremantle the laneway width, the crossover, the power lines and what sits under the drop zone decide the price, and none of that is visible in a photo of the canopy. A site look costs nothing.
Will my insurance or the council pay for the removal?
Home insurance generally covers making safe and removing a tree that has already damaged an insured structure, not a healthy tree you would like gone. Councils deal with verge and street trees, which are theirs, not yours. Everything else sits with the owner. Check your policy wording before assuming a storm job is covered.