Trees

The Woollahra LGA has a rich heritage of private and publicly owned trees planted since the early development of the area.

These trees provide an important contribution to the beauty, character and history that make our area such a desirable place to live. For these reasons, we are working with the community to protect our high value trees and ensuring new trees are planted for the next generation.

The State Environmental Planning Policy (Biodiversity and Conservation) 2021 seeks to protect biodiversity and preserve the amenity of the area through the preservation of trees and other vegetation. Under this policy, we use Chapter E3 - Tree Management of the Woollahra Development Control Plan 2015 (DCP(PDF, 186KB)) to guide how we administer the pruning and removal of privately owned trees.

Aesthetic benefits

• trees create a ‘sense of place’ and provide a distinctive character to an area
• trees can visually soften hard surfacing of the built environment and screen undesirable sights
• trees help create social wellbeing through seasonal variations of foliage colour and floral displays
• trees reflect cultural preferences and particular architectural and historical periods of an areas development.

Environmental benefits

• trees provide habitat for birds, possums, insects and other native animals
• trees help absorb water and reduce the volume of water run-off entering the Harbour
• trees reduce ultra-violet radiation and reduce heat energy absorption from surfaces such as bitumen or concrete areas
• trees absorb carbon dioxide, entrap airborne pollutants and return oxygen back to the atmosphere
• trees provide shade to residents and pedestrian using public footpaths.

Financial benefits

• trees can keep summer temperatures lower and reduce the need for energy consuming air conditioners
• tree-lined streets and well maintained gardens with trees enhances economic land value
• ‘leafy suburbs’ are recognised as maintaining higher land value than those areas without trees.