Terranora
Tree removal in Terranora
Tree pruning and removal in Terranora, where Area E holds extensive areas of environmentally significant vegetation and koalas use the bush.
Tree work in Terranora
Koala season, and the edge of Area E
By December 2025, Tweed Shire Council had received around 20 reports of koala sightings in the Terranora area that season, including females with joeys. Koalas were seen crossing Terranora Road and even coming into suburban backyards. A gum in a Terranora yard can hold a koala on the day the work is booked, and the job waits until the animal moves on by itself.
Terranora takes in Area E, an urban release area that Tweed Shire plans under Section B24 of its Development Control Plan. The council's planning page says Area E also contains extensive areas of environmentally significant vegetation and SEPP 14 wetlands. A tree at the back of a block on that edge may be protected, or may not stand on the owner's land at all, so ownership and approval are settled before any saw comes out.
Services in Terranora
Gums, bush edges and Tweed approvals
Tweed tree work
Approval looked into under Tweed Shire's own scheme before any Terranora gum is quoted.
Tree pruning
Limbs cut back from roofs and gutters on blocks against the bush edge.
Tree removal
Large eucalypts taken down in sections, with the timber carried out to the street.
What it costs: tree removal cost, stump grinding cost, palm removal cost
Compared: removal, lopping or pruning, stump grinding or stump removal, council tree rules compared
How it works
Four steps, and the permit comes before the price
Nothing happens without a written quote you have agreed to.
- 1
Call or send the form
Include the suburb, your details and what needs to be done.
- 2
A contractor comes to see it
On site, not off a photo, because access and what sits underneath change the job.
- 3
The permit position is checked
Against the city's vegetation mapping and the koala controls, before a price is given.
- 4
Quoted in writing
The quote sets out the scope, the timber, the stump and the date. Then a date is booked.
Terranora questions
A released koala, and the four protected food trees
Do koalas really use the bush around Terranora?
They do. In March 2023 Tweed Shire Council reported that a koala rescued twice from suburban Banora Point had each time been released into more suitable habitat at Terranora. So a big gum beside that bush is worth checking against the shire's koala food tree rules before it is touched.
Are some gums protected whatever their size?
Yes, four eucalypts named as preferred koala food trees: swamp mahogany, forest red gum, tallowwood and small-fruited grey gum. Tweed Shire lists each of them as declared vegetation by species, and an application is needed to remove one, undertake heavy canopy pruning, or damage structural roots. The council charges no fee to lodge it, so the species is confirmed before anything is quoted.
