Be clear about what you are doing
There are two separate jobs on this page: taking a small tree out of the ground, and putting a tree back. People usually want both, and the second one is where the long-term outcome is decided.
If the tree is going because it is in the wrong spot and you want it elsewhere, the relevant pages are transplanting and moving a tree. This one assumes the tree is going and something new is going in.
Check the position first
Small does not mean exempt. The City of Gold Coast vegetation management overlay applies to vegetation in mapped areas, and estate covenants and body corporate landscaping by-laws routinely require specific planting to stay — particularly in the Coomera, Pimpama and Robina releases. Check the overlay for your lot and check your title documents.
The approval guide sets out the process if it turns out you need one.
Removing it
Tools. Sharp spade, mattock, an old handsaw or a pruning saw for roots, loppers, a crowbar, gloves.
Reduce it first. Cut the branches off and stack them, leaving a metre or so of trunk as a lever. This gets the crown out of your way and makes the trunk something you can rock and twist.
Dig around it. Trench at roughly 25 to 30cm out for every 25mm of trunk diameter. Cut roots cleanly as you reach them rather than tearing.
Undercut and lever. Once the sides are free, work under the base, cut the anchor roots and lever the root plate out with the crowbar, using the trunk stub as a handle.
Sandy ground through Palm Beach, Tugun and the coastal strip gives easily. Clay through Nerang, Robina and Helensvale holds on, and the plate comes out with a great deal of soil attached — it is far heavier than it looks.
Services. Irrigation, pool plumbing, garden lighting and conduit all run shallow in Gold Coast gardens. Mark what you know about before you start.
If the stump defeats you, stump grinding finishes it in minutes.
Choosing the replacement
This is the part worth thinking about, because the most common tree problem on the Gold Coast is a species planted where its mature size will not fit.
Check the mature size, not the pot size. A weeping fig in a 200mm pot becomes a twenty-metre tree with a root plate that lifts driveways. It is the single most over-planted mistake in this city.
Match the site. Coastal blocks from Main Beach to Coolangatta need genuine salt tolerance — tuckeroo, coast banksia, beach she-oak, lilly pilly, midgen berry. Inland clay sites need something that tolerates wet feet for days after summer rain. Hinterland blocks can carry local eucalypts, but not beside a house.
Distance from structures. As a rough guide, plant a small tree at least three metres from a building, a medium tree five to eight, and anything that will exceed ten metres well beyond that. Then double it if there is a sewer line or a slab edge in between.
Avoid the known troublemakers. Cocos palm (a weed in south-east Queensland), camphor laurel, Chinese celtis, African tulip and umbrella tree all re-appear constantly on removal jobs. They are cheap, fast and regretted.
Planting properly
Hole twice as wide as the root ball, no deeper. Plant at the depth it was in the pot, with the root flare visible. Tease out circling roots from a pot-bound plant or it will strangle itself in five years.
Backfill with the site soil rather than a rich mix, firm in stages, water in, and build a basin. Mulch to 75mm kept clear of the trunk.
Water deeply two or three times a week through the first summer. Do not fertilise for three months. Stake only if it will not stand, with flexible ties low down, and remove the stakes inside a year.
When to stop
If the trunk is over about 100mm, if the tree is over a structure, or if the stump will not come, that is where the DIY version ends. See tree removal or ring (07) 5230 8034.
More on the blog, and the cost guide if you want to know what the professional version runs to.
Frequently asked questions
What size tree can I realistically move myself?
Trunk diameter up to about 50mm at chest height is a two-person weekend job in most soils. Fifty to 100mm is hard physical work and needs three people or a trolley. Above 100mm the root ball weight goes beyond what people can safely handle and you want a machine. Height is a poor guide; trunk diameter is the number that matters.
Do I need approval to remove a small tree on the Gold Coast?
Possibly. The City of Gold Coast vegetation management overlay applies to vegetation inside mapped areas regardless of how small the tree is, and some lots also carry covenants or body corporate landscaping rules. Small size is not automatically an exemption. Check the mapping for your lot, and check your title, before you dig.
Should I replant in the same hole?
Only if the original problem was the tree rather than the position. If the tree was removed because it was too close to a fence, a slab or a service, replanting in the same spot reproduces the problem with a different species. Move the position, or choose something whose mature size genuinely fits.