Arboriculture Workers
Maintain and care for individual trees and shrubs and provide specialist assessment and advice on trees and tree management in urban environments.
A day in the canopy
You are a tree worker on a small crew, climbing, pruning and removing trees in a neighbourhood after a storm. It is 7:30am. Three jobs are booked today, the wind is picking up, and a customer has just phoned about a tree they say is about to fall.
Choose what you would do. Then see what happens. There are often good reasons for each choice.
The wind is getting up and the forecast is worse for the afternoon. The big pine job in Sutherland Road is the first one booked. The customer is keen. Do we go ahead, or do we wait and do the low jobs first?
Go ahead with the pine, because the customer is keen and we may lose the whole day
The wind picks up halfway through the climb and the crew is forced to stop with a half-cut tree. Rushing to beat the weather puts people at the top of a tree in the worst of it.
Do the low jobs first, check the wind at the pine, and agree a stop point
You finish two jobs in good time, and by midday the wind is too strong for the pine. It is rebooked. The customer is disappointed but safe, and nobody is at height in the gusts.
Cancel the whole day and send everyone home, since the forecast is getting worse
Cancelling is cautious, but the low jobs were safe to do in that wind. The crew loses a day's work and two customers are unnecessarily put out.
That big tree at the front is making me nervous since the storm. Can you tell me quickly if it is going to fall? If you tell me it is fine I will leave it, and if not, I will pay to have it removed today.
Say it is fine after a quick glance from the footpath, since you do not want to charge her for nothing
You are probably right, but you looked only from the ground, and trees have faults you cannot see. A quick look is not an assessment, and she is trusting you with her safety.
Say it looks like it will fall and offer to remove it right now, before the next storm
It is a sale, but you have decided on a quick look, and a healthy tree is lost. A tree is judged from its roots, trunk and crown, and a fast answer rarely does it justice.
Walk around it, check roots, trunk and canopy, and suggest a proper inspection
You find soil heaving slightly on one side and recommend a closer assessment. The inspection finds a root problem and the tree is pruned, supported and monitored. She trusts your word.
I am standing near the chipper while you are cutting above. A kid has just walked into the yard looking for his cat. He's about ten. I told him to stay back but he keeps coming forward. What should I do?
Shout up to stop the cutting, then go and calmly walk the boy out of the work zone and tell his parents
The saw stops, the boy is led out and the cat is found by the front gate. Everyone is safe. A work zone is only safe if nobody wanders into it, and a stop call is always allowed.
Tell Jerrod to keep telling the boy to stay back, and finish the cut quickly
You finish the cut as the boy darts forward. Nothing happens, but the margin was far too small. Stopping a cut is quicker than the alternative.
Tell Jerrod to put a cone and some tape across the yard and keep working
The tape helps, but a ten-year-old looking for a cat is not stopped by a cone. A barrier works for adults who respect it, and a child needs a person.
How it went
The crew packs up with one job done and two moved. Tree work combines climbing skill, a feel for plants and the habit of stopping when the day says so. Do you like the idea of work that is physical, outdoors and a little bit high?
This is a simplified, fictional situation to help you explore. It is not professional instruction or a test of your ability.
Case study: The old gum and the new neighbours
A fictional case set in a tree care company working in suburban streets, parks and backyards in a fictional coastal town.
The situation
Dalia was an arborist at Rootline Tree Care. New owners of a house in Palmer Street had asked her to remove a large old gum in the back yard, saying it was dangerous and dropped leaves in their pool. Their neighbour, Mr Okafor, had called the council to object. Dalia went to look at the tree and found the owners were already waiting with a quote from another firm.
What they did
Dalia climbed and inspected the whole tree and wrote up what she found. The main trunk was sound but two limbs over the neighbour's fence were weak. She explained to the owners that removing the whole tree was not needed, and offered to take out the two weak limbs and thin the canopy. She sent a written report to both households and the council. She did not argue about the pool.
How it turned out
The owners decided to keep the tree and pay for the pruning. Mr Okafor withdrew his objection. A pool cover solved the leaf problem. Dalia said the real skill was explaining what she saw in a way that did not make anyone feel foolish for asking.
What would you do?
- How would you explain that a tree is healthy to someone who wants it gone?
- What would you want to check before you climb a tree you do not know?
- Does working high up, with ropes and a saw, sound exciting or scary?