Tree trimming responsibilities
Your responsibilities
You are responsible for maintaining the trees that grow on your property.
The image below shows some common examples of what you are responsible for.
By allowing the trees on your property to come into contact with the powerlines that supply your electricity you could be legally responsible for any damage including that caused by a resulting fire.
You need to ensure that trees are at least 3 metres away from uninsulated powerlines and 1 metre away from insulated powerlines. This includes allowing for trees and powerlines swinging in high winds and powerlines sagging in high temperatures. If you are unsure which powerlines are on your property please call 13 2004.
Please read carefully
You may not trim trees yourself if:
- The tree that has to be maintained is closer than 3 metres to a powerline.
- Any part of your body or equipment comes within 3 metres of a powerline.
- The tree is above a powerline regardless of the distance between the tree and powerline.
If you are unsure about safe tree trimming please call 13 2004.
Vegetation must also be kept clear of the base of power poles.
More Information
For more information on your responsibilities and the related legislation you can view:
- The Electricity Supply Industry Act 1995 (external)
- Tasmania Electricity Code (Chapter 8a) (external)
Our responsibilities
Aurora is responsible for maintaining minimum clearance for vegetation near our powerlines which may include your trees overhanging our lines in the street or trees that are within the clearance space on your property.
We are committed to managing vegetation focusing on establishing a stable long-term maintenance cycle so we can offer a more reliable and safe power supply.
Aurora's vegetation clearing teams understand the requirements around:
- clearance space
- regrowth space
- hazard space
- the pruning and clearing cycle.
Our pruning cycle is 24-monthly in rural areas and 12-monthly in urban areas. This means that across the state we will visit all rural areas once every two years and all urban areas once a year. We also conduct annual fire mitigation inspections in high risk areas across the state.
In addition we always consider issues such as soil erosion water quality windbreaks and wildlife habitat in our pruning and clearing practices.