Branches, prunings, bark and leaf litter loaded by hand and taken away — for Eltham's big, bushy, gum-tree blocks where the green bin never keeps up.
Not a franchisee or a truck driver from a booking system. The bloke who quotes it is the bloke who loads it.
No bags to fill, no skip to load. Leave it in a pile and he loads it, sweeps up and takes it away.
Not a bin size. A heap beside the driveway and one at the bottom of a steep yard are different jobs and get different prices.
Standing tree, asbestos, or more rubbish than garden — he tells you before he starts, not after.
A pruning pile hauled away and a few bags of leaf litter collected is the usual combination on a Eltham block.
Piles of prunings, branches, hedge trimmings, leaves and weeds that won't fit in the green bin. Ross backs the trailer in, loads it himself and takes it away to be recycled — you don't lift a thing.
Pruning piles from Eltham’s bush gardens.
Doing a big garden clean-up — overgrown beds, a back corner nobody has touched in years, a rental between tenants or a property being tidied for sale? Pile it all up and Ross collects the lot in one visit.
Steep, terraced and mudbrick-era gardens.
Fallen limbs, shed bark, leaf litter and dry prunings gathered up from around the house — the fine fuel that matters most in a grassfire or ember attack. Collected and taken away before the Fire Danger Period starts.
Bark and litter under the gums, close to the house.
A gum has dropped a limb across the driveway, or a windy night has left the yard covered. Ross collects what's come down and hauls it away. Standing trees and hung-up limbs are an arborist's job — once they've dropped it, Ross can take it away.
Limbs down after a north-westerly.
Eltham is one of the leafiest suburbs on this side of Melbourne, and that's exactly why it generates so much green waste. Big blocks, established gardens, and gum trees that never stop dropping — bark in summer, limbs after every windy night, and a steady carpet of leaves that fills the gutters and the garden beds.
The green bin handles a fortnight's worth of lawn clippings. It doesn't handle a weekend of pruning, a pile of branches that has been building up behind the shed for two years, or the clear-out before fire season. That's where Ross comes in: he backs the trailer in, loads it himself and takes it away for proper green waste disposal.
A lot of Eltham was built into the bush rather than cleared for it. Mudbrick houses set among the trees, bush gardens full of natives, steep driveways and blocks that fall away to a creek line. It looks fantastic, and it means a constant supply of prunings, dropped limbs and leaf litter.
Eucalypts shed bark and branches as a matter of course, and the stringybarks and manna gums that line so many Eltham streets do it all year. Add native shrubs that need a hard cut-back every couple of years and it doesn't take long to build a pile the council bin will never get through.
Plenty of Eltham properties aren't trailer-friendly. Driveways that drop away from the road, narrow side paths, gardens terraced down a slope, and a back yard that's a long walk from anywhere a trailer can park.
That's fine — it just needs mentioning up front so it can be priced properly. Ross carries it out by hand where he has to. A photo of the access with your enquiry saves a lot of back and forth.
Nillumbik is one of the most bushfire-exposed shires on the edge of Melbourne, and Eltham sits right in it. The fuel that matters most around a house is the fine stuff — leaf litter, shed bark, dead undergrowth and piles of dry prunings — because that is what embers land in.
Each spring the council issues fire prevention notices and the CFA declares a Fire Danger Period for the district. Burning off isn't an option on most suburban Eltham blocks, and never once restrictions are in. Getting it loaded and taken away is the practical answer.
Book it for October or early November. By December everyone in the shire is trying to get the same job done in the same fortnight.
A limb across the driveway after a north-westerly is a very Eltham problem. Ross collects what's come down and takes it away.
He doesn't climb or fell trees. If there's a hung-up limb, a split trunk or a tree that looks like it's coming down, that's a job for a qualified arborist, and a lot of Eltham's trees need a council permit before they're touched. He'll tell you straight if that's what you're looking at, then come back and clear the mess once it's down.
Nillumbik Shire Council issues fire prevention notices each spring and the CFA declares a Fire Danger Period for the district. Get the bark, litter and pruning piles cleared while it's still cool and you're done properly. Leave it to mid-December and everyone in the shire is ringing the same week.
Suburb, roughly how much there is, and what the access is like. A photo saves a lot of back and forth.
Ross comes back with a number. On big or awkward jobs he has a look first rather than guessing.
Loaded by hand, driveway swept, and off for proper green waste disposal.
Ross runs this on his own. He quotes the job, he turns up, he loads the trailer and he takes it away — the same bloke every visit. There is no office in between, no skip company, and no franchise cut coming out of what you pay.
It also means he will tell you when something isn't his job — a standing tree that needs an arborist, or a pile that is more rubbish than garden — rather than taking the money and leaving you with half a problem.
The suburb, roughly how much there is, and how easy it is to get a trailer to it is enough to work with. A photo of the pile gets you a price fastest.
Prefer to talk? Call or text Ross on 0416 030 925. Monday to Saturday, daylight hours — weather permitting.
Get a price on your pile. Takes a minute — Ross reads them himself.
Thanks — that's gone through to Ross. Spring is his busiest time, so if it's close to fire season he may take a day or two.
