Wine country and lifestyle blocks at the gateway to the Yarra Valley. Ross clears the prunings, clippings and branches these properties produce.
Not a franchisee or a truck driver from a booking system. The bloke who quotes it is the bloke who loads it.
No bags to fill, no skip to load. Leave it in a pile and he loads it, sweeps up and takes it away.
Not a bin size. A heap beside the driveway and one at the bottom of a steep yard are different jobs and get different prices.
Standing tree, asbestos, or more rubbish than garden — he tells you before he starts, not after.
A pruning pile hauled away and a few bags of leaf litter collected is the usual combination on a Coldstream block.
Piles of prunings, branches, hedge trimmings, leaves and weeds that won't fit in the green bin. Ross backs the trailer in, loads it himself and takes it away to be recycled — you don't lift a thing.
Prunings from lifestyle and rural blocks.
Doing a big garden clean-up — overgrown beds, a back corner nobody has touched in years, a rental between tenants or a property being tidied for sale? Pile it all up and Ross collects the lot in one visit.
House gardens on larger valley properties.
Fallen limbs, shed bark, leaf litter and dry prunings gathered up from around the house — the fine fuel that matters most in a grassfire or ember attack. Collected and taken away before the Fire Danger Period starts.
Dry debris and heaps cleared before summer.
A gum has dropped a limb across the driveway, or a windy night has left the yard covered. Ross collects what's come down and hauls it away. Standing trees and hung-up limbs are an arborist's job — once they've dropped it, Ross can take it away.
Big gum limbs down after a valley wind.
Coldstream is where the suburbs give way to the Yarra Valley proper. The Maroondah and Melba highways split here, vineyards run across the slopes, and the houses are a mix of a small township and lifestyle blocks with a paddock or two, a machinery shed and a line of old gums along the boundary.
It is flatter and more open than the Dandenongs, so the green waste is different: less forest litter, more grass, shelter-belt trimmings and heavy limbs from paddock trees. When it is more than a green bin or a trailer run of your own can deal with, Ross does green waste removal in Coldstream — loaded by hand and driven off for mulching.
Many Coldstream properties are planted with rows of cypress, pittosporum or natives to break the wind across the valley. Those rows need trimming, and one side of a long shelter belt can produce a surprisingly big heap of cuttings.
Old paddock gums are the other big contributor. They drop heavy limbs without much warning, often in the middle of a grassy area where they get in the way of mowing. Ross collects them and hauls the lot away, along with whatever else has built up around the house garden.
The open ground here grows quickly after winter rain, then cures off to a dry, flammable brown by summer. On the valley floor that is a grassfire problem as much as a bushfire one.
Once the grass around the house, sheds and driveway has been cut, Ross can take away the clippings along with the branches and prunings in the same trip. Big open paddocks are a job for a tractor and slasher, but the heaps close to the buildings are exactly what he is set up for.
Gravel driveways, cattle grids and gates that open onto paddocks are normal in Coldstream. After a wet winter, the paddock itself may be too soft for a loaded trailer.
Describe the access when you book: where the trailer can get to, where it can turn around, and which gates need to stay shut. Ross will keep to firm ground and carry the last stretch if needed.
Valley grass is much easier to deal with in October than in January, and the Yarra Ranges Fire Danger Period usually starts before the grass has finished drying. Book your spring clean-up early.
Suburb, roughly how much there is, and what the access is like. A photo saves a lot of back and forth.
Ross comes back with a number. On big or awkward jobs he has a look first rather than guessing.
Loaded by hand, driveway swept, and off for proper green waste disposal.
Ross runs this on his own. He quotes the job, he turns up, he loads the trailer and he takes it away — the same bloke every visit. There is no office in between, no skip company, and no franchise cut coming out of what you pay.
It also means he will tell you when something isn't his job — a standing tree that needs an arborist, or a pile that is more rubbish than garden — rather than taking the money and leaving you with half a problem.
The suburb, roughly how much there is, and how easy it is to get a trailer to it is enough to work with. A photo of the pile gets you a price fastest.
Prefer to talk? Call or text Ross on 0416 030 925. Monday to Saturday, daylight hours — weather permitting.
Get a price on your pile. Takes a minute — Ross reads them himself.
Thanks — that's gone through to Ross. Spring is his busiest time, so if it's close to fire season he may take a day or two.
