STORM SEASON GALLERY

Storm season announced itself loud and clear over the Australia Day weekend. Uprooting whole trees splitting trees in half and ripping off huge limbs. As a result the Arbor Life Crew had to blow out the barbecue throw away the stubbies and go and confront the havoc that nature had thrown at us.

These pictures are of the first job we were called out to.

This tree was a Bhutan cypress measuring 22 metres in height and the trunk was nearly 1 metre in diameter.

The tree had blown over in the high winds and was precariously balanced on the house.

 

Our first job was to stabilise the tree to prevent it from falling further and causing more damage to the house. Unfortunately this first stage had to be carried out in the rain and high winds. Once we had taken off enough weight to stabilise the tree that was the end of stage 1 and nothing further could be done until the weather calmed down.

 

Stage 2 involved calling in a 20 ton slew crane to take the rest of the tree off the house. This is a very delicate operation, because if you put the chains in the wrong place the timber can swivel and cause additional damage to the property. The crane took the rest of the tree in 4 pieces each piece weighing approximately 2 tonnes.

 

Amazingly the only damage to the house was 10 cracked tiles and a broken gutter.

This job was only a taste of what was to come over the next few weeks!!

Hugh Sweeting.