Room for the piling rig, and the lilly pilly stays

Neutral Bay · 2026 · Builders & developers

The challenge

A developer was building apartments in Neutral Bay. The new basement ran along the root zone of a mature lilly pilly and a jacaranda, and the balconies reached into the lilly pilly's canopy. The builder needed clear answers: which roots can go, which branches must be cut, and how much room the piling rig and scaffold need.

What we did

• Cut through the slab and dug test trenches by air spade and hand tools, 350–400 mm deep, along the new basement line.

• Mapped each root and every pipe found (copper, PVC and old terracotta).

• Set out which roots the site arborist cuts cleanly with sterilised tools and wraps in damp natural-fibre cloth.

• Prepared a branch-by-branch pruning plan, each branch measured and colour-marked on photos: 1 m clearance for the piling rig and 1–1.5 m for scaffolding, to the Australian pruning standard (AS 4373-2007).