Maintaining trees near powerlines
If you, your tools or tree come in contact with powerlines, there's a high chance of injury, fire or electrocution - as well as the potential to cause a power outage.
Safe growing around service lines
A service line is the black wire that carries electricity to your property. You're responsible for clearing any vegetation inside your property boundary that could affect your service line.
Use one of our authorised vegetation contractors to maintain trees or shrubs that are within 1 metre of your service line. (Please note you're responsible for payment of the contractor when they perform work around your service line).
Should you choose not to engage one of the below authorised contractors, please call us on 1300 137 008 for information about the process to have the service line temporarily disconnected to allow the vegetation to be safely cleared (a fee will apply).
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TasNetworks authorised vegetation contractor list We're not responsible for the work carried out by these contractors or the quality of services they provide |
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|---|---|---|
| Business | Contact details | Region |
| A1 Tree Services | Website: www.a1treeservices.com.au Phone: 6427 2645 Email: enquiries@a1treeservices.com.au |
North-West |
| Hydro Services Tasmania | Phone: 6339 6161 Email: administration@hst.net.au |
North |
| Island Vegetation | Phone: 0427 951 498 Email: office@islandveg.com.au |
North |
| Arbwork Tree Services | Phone: 0447 759 969 Email: craigwickham1982@gmail.com |
South |
| Tree Dynamix | Website: www.treedynamix.com.au Phone: 6268 0422 Email: treedynamix@yahoo.com.au |
South |
| Active Trees | Website: www.activetreeservices.com.au Phone: (03) 8873 3150 Email: lynneg@active.com.au |
South |
| Concept Tree Services | Website: www.concepttreeservices.com.au Phone: 0477 818 884 Email: peter@concepttreeservices.com.au |
South |
Download a copy of our authorised vegetation contractor list (PDF)
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What are the required clearances?
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For your safety, if trees or shrubs get within one metre of your service line, you’re not permitted to conduct any maintenance on them, and must contact an authorised vegetation contractor. You must also contact an authorised contractor if any vegetation is above a service line.
If you notice vegetation is approaching your service line, you may conduct maintenance as long as you, your tools, or any part of your equipment and the vegetation you’re trimming don’t come within 1 metre of the service line at any time.
Safe growing around distribution powerlines
A distribution powerline often has more than one wire and generally doesn't connect to a property. We're responsible for maintaining vegetation within the Clearance Zone around all TasNetworks-owned distribution powerlines.
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What are the required clearances?
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We trim trees to adhere to the certain Clearance Zones. The Clearance Zones take into account the space needed to protect everyone’s safety, reduce the risk of fire and ensure a reliable supply of power.
As a general rule, the Clearance Zone is 3 metres. But in some cases where there are long spans of powerlines or very tall trees, we may do more than just trim trees and instead completely clear vegetation to achieve greater clearances.
When maintaining vegetation on your property, under no circumstances are you, your tools or any part of your equipment permitted to be within 3 metres of a distribution line. You must also ensure no part of the vegetation comes within 3 metres of a distribution line.
Examples of where responsibilities start and finish
Customer A is responsible for clearing vegetation inside their property boundary that could affect all parts of their service line.
Customer B is responsible for clearing all vegetation from Customer A’s tree that has crossed their property boundary and affected their service line. You are only responsible for clearing vegetation on your property.
Speak with your neighbours to come up with a more permanent solution if regrowth continues.
Customer C is responsible for clearing vegetation around their service line that is within their property boundary. We’re responsible for maintaining the trees that affect Customer C’s service line on Customer B’s property.
Customer D is responsible for clearing vegetation inside their property boundary. We’ll maintain the tree affecting the distribution line outside the property boundary.
Plan ahead; plant smart
Avoid the risk of trees getting too close to powerlines by checking how tall it grows before planting.
You may like to consider removing at-risk trees and planting new ones that don’t grow taller than 3 metres at full maturity near distribution lines or don’t grow within 1 metre of service lines. Ideally, it’s best to avoid planting underneath service lines altogether where possible.
Which trees are best?
There’s a large variety of trees suitable for growing around powerlines. Speak to your local nursery. They’ll have information to help you select the best trees for your property.