Hilly acreage, horse paddocks and treed lifestyle blocks on the edge of the Dandenongs — the kind of property where green waste is measured in trailer-loads.
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 Narre Warren North 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.
Bulk loads from acreage and lifestyle blocks.
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.
Long driveways, sheds and paddock fence lines.
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.
Litter and dead growth cleared around 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.
Gum limbs down across tracks and paddocks.
Narre Warren North doesn't look much like the rest of Narre Warren. North of the main suburban streets it opens up into hilly acreage, small farms, horse properties and houses set well back among the gums. It's close to the city, but it has a lot more in common with the foothills than with the courts down the road.
Big blocks and big trees mean big piles. Branches dropped over winter, prunings from orchard trees and garden beds, and a season of dead growth around the house all add up. Ross brings the trailer up the driveway and handles the bulk green waste in one visit where he can.
On a block of an acre or more, the house garden is only part of it. There are fence lines that get overgrown with blackberry and weeds, windbreaks that drop limbs, and piles of branches that were pushed into a corner of a paddock to deal with later.
Ross can clear those piles, even ones that have sat for a while, as long as they are clean green waste. If the old heap has rubbish, wire or timber offcuts through it, mention that up front — it may need sorting before it can go.
Parts of Narre Warren North sit on the edge of the Dandenong foothills with continuous tree cover and grass, which is exactly the kind of country the CFA worries about in summer. Casey City Council can issue fire prevention notices where properties are carrying too much fuel.
The priority is the area close to the house: leaf litter, bark, dead shrubs and dry prunings within the first few metres. Burning off is restricted once the Fire Danger Period starts, so removal is the reliable option. Ross can usually take it all on the same trip.
Some properties have a long gravel drive, a gate to open and a slope that makes a trailer awkward in the wet. Ross will look at access when he quotes and pick a dry day where the ground matters.
If a pile is well away from where the trailer can park, he'll tell you how that affects the time. A photo from the driveway showing the distance is useful.
By late spring the grass has cured, the gums have dropped a winter of litter and everyone on the hill is trying to book the same week before the Fire Danger Period. October is the month to get the big piles gone, with a follow-up visit in summer if the grass comes back.
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.
