The suburb, not just the council
There are two Melvilles in every local conversation. The City of Melville is the council running everything from Bicton and Attadale round to Willagee and Myaree. Melville the suburb is a specific place: the streets between Canning Highway, Leach Highway and Stock Road, running down towards the Swan River foreshore reserves. This page is about the suburb, though the council's rules cover both.
The lots here are large by metropolitan standards and a fair number were cut out of bushland rather than paddock. That is the thing worth knowing before you ring anyone about a tree.
Remnant trees behave differently to planted ones
A planted garden tree has a root system shaped by where it was watered and a crown shaped by the fence line. A remnant marri, tuart or jarrah left standing when the street went through has neither. Its roots run wide across the Tamala limestone the way they always did, often well under the house and the driveway, and its crown has the form of a bush tree that suddenly found itself in an open yard.
That matters in three practical ways. Root damage from a driveway, a pool excavation or a service trench dug years ago frequently shows up as crown decline now. The wide, shallow root plate is the reason these trees lift rather than snap in saturated winter sand. And the hollows they carry, which are perfectly normal at that age, are what people point at when they assume the tree is finished.
Get it looked at before you decide
Because of that, Melville is a suburb where a written arborist assessment earns its fee more often than average. A mature marri is not replaceable in a human lifetime, and the difference between a tree with a hollow and a tree with structural decay is not something anyone can call from the ground with confidence.
Where the tree is sound but the crown is unbalanced or dropping deadwood, the answer is reduction and deadwooding, not felling. Where it genuinely is failing, the removals page explains how it comes down in sections, and the Perth cost guide sets out what changes the number.
Approvals, and who owns what
The City of Melville is the authority on whether a particular tree at a particular address can be removed, on what a planning or subdivision approval requires, and on anything standing on a verge or in the foreshore reserves along the river. Do not take a neighbour's experience as a ruling on your own tree. The permits page explains what the four councils across this service area each control.
What the removals look like here
Access is usually better than in the port suburbs: room for a truck, a proper side gate, somewhere to stack timber. What is hard is size. A full-grown tuart over a tiled roof is a long day of rigging, and marri and jarrah trunk wood is heavy enough that sections have to be small. Ask for the rounds to be left stacked if you burn firewood, and ask for the chip if you have garden beds, because both save carting.
Stumps are their own job and their own machine. Limestone under shallow sand routinely stops a grinder before it reaches the last of the roots, so say whether you are turfing, replanting or laying a footing.
Booking a look
Ring 08 7741 1934. Trees already down after a front go through storm response, and palms are quoted on the palm page. Adjoining streets in Myaree, Willagee and Attadale are covered by the same crews.
Frequently asked questions
Is Melville the suburb or the council?
Both, which causes constant confusion. Melville is a suburb south of Canning Highway, and the City of Melville is the council covering it along with Bicton, Attadale, Palmyra, Myaree, Willagee and a dozen others. So advice given to someone in Applecross comes from the same council, while advice from a Fremantle address does not apply here at all.
What makes a remnant marri worth keeping?
A tree that predates the subdivision is doing things a planted replacement cannot for decades. It is adapted to the soil and water table it grew in, it usually carries hollows and habitat, and it holds canopy over a yard that would otherwise bake. Mature marri and tuart also add measurable value to a property. None of that means it can never come out, only that it deserves an assessment first.
There is a hollow in the trunk. Does the tree have to come down?
Not on its own. Hollows are normal in mature marri and tuart and are part of why the tree matters ecologically. What counts is how much sound wood is left around the cavity, where it sits in relation to the load, and whether decay extends into a major union or the base. That needs assessing on site, and sometimes with the tree climbed, rather than judged from the driveway.
Do I need approval to remove a native tree on my own land here?
Possibly, and it is not safe to assume otherwise. The City of Melville is the authority on what applies at a given address, and separate conditions can attach to a planning or subdivision approval on the lot. Verge trees are council assets in any case. One call before you book is cheaper than removing a tree you were not entitled to touch.