Viewbank's family homes sit on good-sized blocks above the river flats. When the prunings, leaves and branches pile up, Ross takes them away.
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 Viewbank 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.
Prunings from 60s and 70s family 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.
Old natives and bed clear-outs taken away.
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.
Dry litter cleared from reserve-side homes.
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.
Storm branches picked up and taken away.
Viewbank grew mostly in the 1960s and 70s, with brick family homes on generous suburban blocks. The suburb sits on the rise above the Banyule Flats, and a number of streets back onto parkland and reserves, which gives it a green, open feel.
Gardens here were often planted with natives when the houses were new, and many of those plants are now at the end of their life or far too big. Add gums, deciduous trees and hedges, and there's usually a backlog of green waste. Ross clears it in one trip, loading by hand and taking it for disposal.
A lot of Viewbank gardens were planted in the native style that was popular when the suburb was built: grevilleas, bottlebrush, wattles and tea-tree. Most of those plants are short-lived, and after a few decades they're woody, leggy or dead.
Pulling them out or cutting them hard back is a good way to refresh a garden, and it generates a lot of material. Ross loads the lot and takes it away, leaving the beds clear for replanting.
Streets that back onto parkland and reserves get extra leaf litter and bark blowing in, and gardens on those boundaries can be harder to keep tidy. Leaves pile against the back fence and in the gutters.
Clearing that material before the hot months keeps things neat and reduces dry fuel around the house. Ross can collect it and add it to the same load as any prunings.
Viewbank blocks tend to be a decent size with reasonable driveways, so the trailer can often get close. Some homes are on sloping sites, with the back garden below the house or up a set of steps.
Either way, Ross loads by hand and sweeps up afterwards. A couple of photos with your enquiry help him give you an accurate price.
Spring is when many Viewbank gardeners pull out tired natives and prune hard, and autumn brings the leaf fall. Both leave piles that the bin cannot handle. Booking a pickup at the start of each season avoids having a heap sitting in the yard for months.
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.
