New Perth Bunbury Highway

About the Project

This highway is the largest road infrastructure project to be undertaken in Western Australia by the Southern Gateway Alliance. The works include a 32.4 km four lane freeway from Safety Bay Road to South Yunderup and a 38.3 km four lane rural highway from South Yunderup to the existing four lane old coast road at Lake Clifton.

To become an approved contractor, Arboreal Tree Care had to meet Federal guidelines which included policies and procedures for Safety, Environment and Quality. Arboreal Tree Care also had to create its own employer/employee agreement (Arboreal Tree Care Agreement) as no award exists for our industry. This agreement is approved to be compliant with the codes and guidelines established by the Australian Government Department of Employment and Workplace Relations. All team members were then drug and alcohol tested to meet SGA recruitment.

Having this Federal compliance, Arboreal Tree Care is now positioned to undertake works managed by state and local government.

Arboreal Tree Care's association started in early 2007 when we were asked to remove and grind stumps of trees for the Karnup Road off ramp.  A 100m strip of trees were identified to be cleared, mulched and stumps ground. These trees were too close to residential properties for earthmoving equipment to handle and underground services also existed.

Our next Site Instruction involved a 2.5 Km stretch of mature Tuart, Jarrah and Banksia trees to be dismantled to stumps for excavation. The trees were first assessed for possible fauna nesting and then cleared for removal. This work was carried out on Paganoni Road Karnup and involved traffic management and the use of a 24m cherry picker. We were given a 5m drop zone parallel the existing road and the protected Paganoni Swamp land, to stockpile the tree debris into for removal by loader and semi tippers.

There have been several clearing jobs undertaken to allow the new freeway works to continue. Visual, difficult vehicle and building access, road construction and community resolution have been the main reasons for our involvement.

Dorsett Road Rest Area (Lake Clifton)

A large area of old pine forests next to the freeway works were identified to create rest areas for motorists. Lake Clifton is almost a half way point between Perth and Bunbury. There were 7 forest sites chosen and SGA tagged all trees to be removed to low stumps. This involved working in a confined forest environment and raising all tree crowns to 5 metres. A posi-trak with rake, then followed behind to clear and stockpile so we could then return and  selectively fell and dismantle trees while maintaining canopies of trees to be retained. The posi-trak again then cleared out debris carefully to stockpile for downsizing and tub grinding. The works took 2 weeks to complete and now a park type rest area can be seen and enjoyed.

Dampier Drive

In November 2008, Arboreal Tree Care was again employed by Southern Gateway Alliance to undertake a large roadside clearing job. This clearing work was situated at the Dampier Drive intersection (Golden Bay) and continued west for approximately 1.5 kilometers long and 4 meters deep.

Mature Tuarts, Banksia’s and numerous other tree species were removed to 1 meter high stumps for later excavation.

Road traffic management was employed to provide a safe work zone for team members to conduct there work within. Cherrypickers were used on certain trees to assist in dismantling them safely in a confined and busy situation. Crane trucks were used to cart all bigger logs from site in an effort to meet time and cost restraints applied by SGA. The stumps were later dug out with the use of a 20 tonne excavator and trucked away for tippage. The job took our team 3 days to complete.