Helping neighbours with natural disasters

Published on 15 December 2022

Recent storms affected some of our street trees in parts of Unley, but our neighbouring council Mitcham was hit even harder after high winds saw many trees damaged across a range of locations, some of which were difficult to access.

The City of Mitcham approached the Local Government Association (LGA) seeking assistance following the particularly fierce storm which hit the state on November 12. Representatives from the LGA contacted us, and our arboriculture team was keen to lend a hand with personnel and equipment.

Unley’s Senior Management examined our current workplans and employee schedules, and, reworking those, managed to move staff tasks around to accommodate this extra time involvement. They were able to free up our 'tree team' for two days over a fortnight to give Mitcham some support.

The arboriculturists employed the 16-metre extended work platform (EWP) vehicle and chipper truck to deal with branches that posed a danger to the public. City of Mitcham crews were grateful for the help, which demonstrated the true spirit of collaboration working with other councils when dealing with natural disasters.

Many of the team involved previously helped in the wake of devastating bushfires which impacted large areas of Kangaroo Island in 2020, and this experience made them valuable assistants in the work they contributed to in Mitcham recently.