What tree lopping actually means
"Lopping" gets used for almost any job where part of a tree is cut off, from trimming a hedge-sized bottlebrush to reducing a twenty-metre gum. In practice the work a Midland homeowner usually needs is one or more of these:
- Crown reduction: taking height and spread off a tree that has outgrown the block, by cutting limbs back to a healthy side branch.
- Crown lifting: removing the lower limbs so you can walk, mow or park underneath, and so light reaches the lawn.
- Deadwooding: taking out dead and dying branches before they drop. On gums this is the job that matters most before summer.
- Clearance pruning: getting branches off the roof, out of the gutters and away from the service wire to the house.
- Thinning: opening up a dense canopy so wind passes through it rather than pushing against it.
The difference between a good job and a bad one
A bad lopping job leaves thick stubs and a tree that looks like a hat stand. Within a season it sprouts a thicket of fast, weakly attached shoots, and within a few years those shoots are heavy branches waiting to snap. You end up paying for the same tree again, sooner, and it is more dangerous than before.
A good job makes each cut just outside the branch collar or back to a side branch big enough to take over. The tree keeps its shape and seals the wounds properly. It costs about the same on the day. The quote should tell you which approach is planned; if it just says "lop tree", ask what that means.
Midland trees that often need attention
- Marri and jarrah along the scarp edge in Swan View, Bellevue and Helena Valley, which drop heavy limbs and gumnuts.
- Flooded gums and paperbarks on the river flats near Guildford, Woodbridge and the Helena River, which grow quickly in the deeper soil.
- Peppercorns in old Guildford and Swan Valley gardens, which develop long, heavy limbs and hollow sections with age.
- Cape lilacs and jacarandas over pergolas and driveways in older Midland and Midvale streets.
- Lemon-scented gums and other planted eucalypts in newer estates like Ellenbrook, which can outgrow small blocks within a decade or two.
Bushfire season and the City of Swan
Parts of Swan View, Bellevue, Helena Valley, Jane Brook and the Swan Valley edge sit in bushfire-prone areas. The City of Swan publishes a fire hazard reduction notice each year that sets out what landowners need to do and by when. Pruning overhanging branches and clearing deadwood can be part of meeting it. Read the current notice for your property type, because the requirements and dates are set by the City, not by us.
Price and planning
Lopping is usually cheaper than removal, but a big reduction on a large tree near a house can cost as much as a small removal. Our cost guide has 2026 planning bands. If the tree is really beyond saving, the person quoting should say so and price tree removal as well, so you can compare.