Pruning and removing trees on private properties across the Mornington Peninsula is essential to preserving the region’s ecosystem and protecting against bushfires. Across its coast, creeks, hills and plains you can find almost 700 species of indigenous plants, yet the environment we see today represents a fraction of the Peninsula’s original native vegetation.
The greatest threats to the region’s trees come from disease, age and storm damage. Those afflictions are universal, but in a community as densely settled as the Peninsula, mitigating them matters for everyone’s safety. Bushfire risk and ongoing development add another layer, which is why local planning schemes here are among the more involved in Victoria.
Council rules, state planning provisions and overlay controls all intersect to determine what you can do to a tree on your own property. This guide sets out how they fit together.
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Tree Pruning and Removal
Most trees on the Mornington Peninsula will need a permit before extensive pruning or a complete removal. Whether you need one, and how the Shire assesses your application, depends on the planning controls over your property, the type and size of the tree, and the impact its absence would have on the surrounding environment.
The Shire publishes examples of what it considers valid reasons for tree works. These include trees that have become dangerous, are impacting powerlines or are damaging infrastructure. Reasons it does not consider sufficient:
- Improving views from private properties
- Overhanging branches from a neighbour’s tree
- Falling leaves
- Lack of grass growth under the tree
- Minor damage to infrastructure
Pruning Guidelines in The Mornington Peninsula
Pruning on the Peninsula should follow Australian Standard AS 4373, Pruning of amenity trees. More generally, the Shire outlines several things residents should be doing to keep their trees healthy and safe:
- Remove structurally unsound limbs
- Remove dead or diseased material
- Maintain prescribed clearances from services and traffic thoroughfares
- Maintain tree form by removing misshapen limbs
- Minimise future problems
- Remove any immediate safety risks to the public
Jim’s Trees works to Australian Standard pruning practice as well as local and state regulations. If you’re unsure what applies to your property and would rather not work through council policy yourself, contact your local Jim’s for help with the permits and to get the work underway.
Canopy Trees & The Clause to Look Out For
On 15 September 2025 the Victorian Government introduced Clause 52.37 into every planning scheme in the state, including the Mornington Peninsula’s. It requires a planning permit to remove, destroy or lop a canopy tree in most residential zones.
A canopy tree is one that meets all three of the following:
- More than 5 metres in height
- A trunk circumference of more than 0.5 metres, measured 1.4 metres above ground level
- A canopy spread of at least 4 metres
The permit trigger applies in the Mixed Use, Township, Residential Growth, General Residential, Neighbourhood Residential, and Housing Choice and Transport zones. The Low Density Residential Zone is excluded, which covers a reasonable share of the Peninsula, so the zone your property sits in matters a great deal here.
Clause 52.37 sits on top of existing controls rather than replacing them. If your property is also covered by a Vegetation Protection Overlay or an Environmental Significance Overlay, those still apply and you may need approval under more than one control. The clause also sets minimum canopy tree numbers per lot for new development, which can mean planting new trees as part of an application.
The state government’s guide to the canopy tree provisions sets out the detail, including the exemptions and the treatment of boundary canopy trees.
Planning Permits & Overlays
Before planning any significant work on a tree, the first step is working out which controls sit over your property. The Peninsula carries a range of Vegetation Protection Overlays, Significant Landscape Overlays, Environmental Significance Overlays and local planning policies.
You can check what applies to your address through the Shire’s mapping tools, or through VicPlan.
Vegetation controls will apply to your land if it is larger than 0.4 hectares, which is 4,000 square metres, or if it is affected by any of the relevant zones or overlays under the Mornington Peninsula Planning Scheme. Larger rural and semi-rural holdings across the Peninsula are commonly caught by the lot size threshold alone.
If your property sits outside all planning controls, the tree is not native, and it is not of a size or species considered significant, you may be able to prune or remove it without a planning permit. Since the introduction of Clause 52.37, that is a narrower category than it used to be. Confirm with the Shire or with your local Jim’s Trees before starting.
Where a permit is needed, the Shire publishes its planning forms, fees and checklists online, and completed applications go to planning@mornpen.vic.gov.au. You can also reach the Shire’s Planning Services team on (03) 5950 1010.
Bushfire Exemptions
To help residents protect their homes, certain exemptions allow pruning or removal without a planning permit to create defensible space around buildings used for accommodation. These sit under Clause 52.12 of the Victorian Planning Provisions.
Under Clause 52.12-1, permit requirements do not apply within 10 metres of an existing building used for accommodation that was:
- Built before 10 September 2009
- Approved by a permit issued under the scheme before 10 September 2009
- Approved by a building permit under the Building Act 1993 before 10 September 2009
- Built to replace a dwelling or dependent persons unit damaged or destroyed by bushfire between 1 January 2009 and 31 March 2009
Under Clause 52.12-2, permit requirements do not apply to vegetation removal for a combined maximum width of 4 metres either side of an existing fence on a boundary between properties in different ownership, where that fence was constructed before 10 September 2009.
Arborist Insights
Daryl runs a local Jim’s Trees franchise on the Peninsula with his son Jamie.
If the overlapping regulations feel overwhelming, our crews deal with them constantly and are trained to guide you through. Daryl’s team will call the Shire on your behalf to check whether a permit is needed, and help you complete the forms, which matters for residents who find the process difficult to navigate or who have limited English. The property owner still has to submit the application, but you don’t have to do it alone.
On timing, the tree work itself is rarely the bottleneck. Depending on workload, Daryl’s crew can often carry out a job the same week or the week after. Council approval sets the pace, which is why it pays to start the permit process early rather than once you have decided on a date.
Cutting to the Chase
The Mornington Peninsula’s biodiversity is protected by a layered set of controls, and since September 2025 a statewide canopy tree provision has been added on top of them. Pruning and removing sick, damaged or dangerous trees remains an important part of keeping that ecosystem healthy, but on most Peninsula properties it now starts with checking what applies to your land.
Jim’s carries out tree works to local, state and national standards, and can help you work out where you stand before you apply. Call your local Jim’s Trees on 131 546 or request a free quote online.