Diamond Creek is part township, part bush acreage. Either way, the gums keep dropping and the pile keeps growing, and Ross will come and take it away.
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 Diamond Creek 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.
Township yards and bush blocks alike.
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.
Overgrown gardens back to a clean slate.
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.
Fuel cleared ahead of the fire restrictions.
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.
Storm limbs on driveways and fence lines.
Diamond Creek grew up around its main street and railway station, and it still has a country-town feel. Close to the centre the blocks are suburban, but it doesn't take long heading out before properties get bigger, hillier and much more heavily treed. The creek the town is named after runs through it, with its walking and bike trail alongside.
Green waste here comes in two sizes. Township gardens produce the usual hedge trimmings, leaves and prunings, just more of them than the bin can take. The bush blocks on the edges produce bark, limbs and dead understorey in bulk. Ross handles both: he loads it by hand and takes it for green waste disposal.
On a standard Diamond Creek house block, a typical job is a pruning pile, the trimmings from a hedge cut back hard, or a yard cleared before the house goes on the market. These are usually done in a single trailer load.
On the larger properties it's more likely to be several months of fallen branches, scrub you have cleared back from the house, or the leftovers from a big clean-up. Those may need more than one load, and Ross will say so up front.
Diamond Creek is in the heart of Nillumbik and bushfire preparation is taken seriously. Every year the CFA declares a Fire Danger Period and the shire issues fire prevention notices to properties that need attention.
The fuel that matters most is closest to the house: leaf litter in the gutters and against walls, bark under decks, and dry prunings left in piles. Ross loads it up and takes it away, rather than leaving you with a heap that's just as flammable sitting in the back paddock.
When a big limb comes down on a Diamond Creek property, Ross can load it up and haul it away once it is on the ground.
He won't climb a tree or fell one. Hung-up branches and unstable trees are arborist work, and many trees in Nillumbik need a permit before removal. Talk to the council and an arborist first, then Ross can take care of the clean-up.
Most of Diamond Creek wants its fire prep done in the same few weeks. Book in October and the bark, litter and pruning piles are gone before the Fire Danger Period is declared and before contractors across the shire are fully booked.
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.
