Family homes on estate streets, backyards that have seen twenty years of kids, dogs and gardening. Ross loads up what comes out of them and takes the Sydenham green waste 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 Sydenham 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.
Loads from family backyards, big or small.
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.
Backyards reclaimed after years of neglect.
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 grass and dead growth removed 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.
Windblown branches picked up and carted.
Most of Sydenham was built from the late 1980s through the 1990s and into the 2000s, with estate streets of brick family homes. Many were bought by young families, and the backyards were set up for kids: a lawn, a play area, a couple of trees and a veggie patch that got planted with good intentions.
As families have grown up, many of those backyards have changed use or simply been left. Play areas become overgrown, the veggie patch disappears under weeds and the trees along the back fence get big. Reclaiming a yard like that is a regular Sydenham job and usually means a good-sized load of garden waste.
A lot of Sydenham clean-ups start with owners who want their backyard back. Maybe they are planning a new deck or pool, maybe they just want to be able to use it again. Either way, the first step is to cut back the overgrowth and get rid of the waste.
Ross does the heavy part of getting rid of it: carrying the lot out, loading it onto the trailer and taking it away.
Sydenham has plenty of corner blocks and courts, where the garden wraps around the house and the fence lines are long. Shrubs planted along them twenty-odd years ago can now be tall and thick, overhanging footpaths and blocking sight lines at driveways.
Trimming them back and taking away the cuttings keeps the property tidy and the footpath clear for neighbours.
Most homes here have a driveway and a garage, and many have side gates wide enough to barrow through. That usually makes loading reasonably quick.
Where the side gate is narrow or there is a pool fence in the way, Ross will carry the waste out by hand. A photo of the path helps him plan it.
In Sydenham, the push to get the backyard sorted usually comes in November, when people want it ready for summer and Christmas. Booking a clean-up in October gets the job done before the holiday rush.
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.
