Pelican
Tree removal in Pelican
Tree pruning, palm work and removals around the lake shore at Pelican.
Tree work in Pelican
Heritage listed cabbage palms
Lake Macquarie's LEP lists the Pelican cabbage trees as a local heritage item, so these palms are part of the city's listed environmental heritage. The Pelican Blacksmiths Landcare site is known for cabbage tree palms, worked by volunteers and bush regenerators.
Cabbage palms are native too. Lake Macquarie council says an application may be needed before pruning or removing a native tree or Araucaria pine species, and that sits on top of any heritage listing.
Services in Pelican
Palms and the lake edge
Palm removal
Palms taken out of private yards once the heritage and native tree approvals are clear.
Tree pruning
Dead fronds and heavy limbs taken off over roofs, on yards back from a 40 metre foreshore rock revetment that council now looks after.
Tree removal permits
Which approval applies when a tree is native, heritage listed, or both.
How it works
From the first message to a written quote
The council question is settled before any price, and nothing is booked until you have said yes to a quote in writing.
- 1
Tell us what the tree is doing
Where it stands, what it hangs over and what you would like done about it.
- 2
A contractor comes to see it
A tree contractor who covers your suburb looks at the tree, the access and what is underneath it.
- 3
The council question is answered
Your council, the tree's height and trunk, its distance from the house and the species decide whether a permit or an exemption applies.
- 4
You get it in writing
Scope, timber, stump and date on one page, and nothing is booked until you have said yes.
Pelican questions
Rock on the foreshore
Why is there new rock on the shore?
In April 2026 council built a 40 metre foreshore rock revetment at Pelican to slow erosion and protect the vegetation on the reserve. Those foreshore trees are council's.
Are heritage trees handled through the usual tools?
Not always. For a heritage item, development application consent or approval from the NSW Government may be required for tree work, so council is the first call.
Can neighbours' palm fronds be trimmed?
Overhanging native growth can be pruned back to the boundary in Lake Macquarie, within a limit council sets on how much of the canopy comes off.
