Storm Damage Tree Clean-Up Across the Camden Area

First, make it safe. Then call us.

Camden gets its weather from two directions. Summer afternoon thunderstorms build over the ranges to the west and roll across the Cumberland Plain with a burst of downdraft wind that snaps limbs before the rain even lands. And when a big southerly change comes through, the soft, saturated ground on the Nepean flats below Camden Bicentennial Equestrian Park and out through Elderslie stops holding root plates the way it should. Trees that stood through twenty years of weather come over sideways in one gust.

If that's just happened at your place, work through this before anything else:

1. Get everyone away from it, including pets, and don't walk under a hung-up limb. A branch caught in a canopy can release hours later.
2. Treat every wire as live. Endeavour Energy asks the public to stay at least 8 metres from fallen powerlines and to report them any time on 131 003.
3. Call 000 if someone is injured or in danger.
4. Call NSW SES on 132 500 for storm damage to a home — a tree on a roof, water coming in, structural risk.
5. Then call us on (02) 4602 1480 and we'll get a crew to you to clear it.

Which trees tend to fail around Camden

After enough storm calls in one area you start to see patterns, and Camden's are fairly consistent.

Liquidambars are the great over-performer in the older streets — big, fast, shallow-rooted and heavy at the ends of the limbs. In saturated soil with wind behind it, a mature liquidambar is a genuine candidate for a whole-tree failure.

Camphor laurels put on enormous side limbs with weak, included bark at the union. They rarely blow over; they tear a limb out, and a camphor limb is a lot of weight.

Jacarandas and plane trees are brittle. Jacaranda wood in particular snaps rather than bends, so a summer storm through an old Camden garden usually leaves at least one jacaranda short of a branch.

Cumberland Plain eucalypts — forest red gum and grey box, the species that typify what's left of the natural landscape here — shed limbs in a way that's normal for the tree and expensive for whatever's underneath. Summer limb drop happens on still, hot days as well as in storms.

River oaks (casuarinas) along the Nepean corridor tolerate wet feet better than most, but on an undercut bank they go over root plate and all.

Newly planted estate trees at Oran Park, Spring Farm and Catherine Field fail for the opposite reason — young root systems in fill soil, staked too long or not long enough, and a five-year-old tree lying flat across a driveway.

How a storm job actually runs

The first move is always the same: work out what's holding what. Storm-damaged trees are under load in ways an intact tree never is, and a limb that looks loose is often the only thing stopping the rest from moving. So the crew reads the tension and compression in the wood before a saw starts, sections the hazard out in a controlled order, and only then deals with the pile.

From there it's straightforward — cut, drag, chip, load, rake, blow down the hard surfaces. If a tree has come off a roof or fence, everything gets photographed in place first for your records.

Sometimes the whole tree has to go afterwards, and sometimes it doesn't. A tree that has lost one limb cleanly can often be brought back into balance with tree pruning or a reduction — see tree lopping. If the trunk is split or the root plate has lifted, it's tree removal, and we'll say so plainly rather than sell you a patch-up.

Wet ground, heavy machinery, and your lawn

One thing worth flagging honestly. Storm work happens when the ground is at its softest, and that's exactly when a loaded truck or a chipper can rut a lawn badly. On the low-lying blocks at Elderslie, Camden South and along the river flats we'll often park on the street and carry further rather than drive in — it takes longer, and it saves you re-turfing in spring. If your driveway or lawn is a concern, tell us when you call and we'll plan around it.

After the clean-up

Everything that comes out goes with us — see green waste and mulching for how the chip and timber are handled. If a stump is left where a tree came over, stump grinding finishes the job.

We work right across the LGA, from the heritage streets around town out to the newest estates — the full list is on our local areas page, and there's more about us on the home page.

Storm damage at your place? Call (02) 4602 1480. Local crews, a straight answer about what it'll take, and a yard that's safe to walk through again.