Verges & Street Trees

Verge Definition and Uses

The verge is the strip of land between the property boundary and the road edge. The verge is part of the road reserve which houses underground public utility services such as gas, water, sewage and electricity. To prevent any disturbance to these services, when residents excavate their verge for landscaping purposes or to construct a fence or crossover, they should call the ‘Dial Before you Dig’ number, 1100, which is a facility that provides locations of many services contained within the verge.

Doing Excavation Works?

Contact ‘Dial Before you Dig’ number, 1100 to avoid disturbance to underground public utility services such as gas, water, sewage and electricity.

Verge Maintenance

Verges are generally maintained by the resident living adjacent to that verge. The City does provide a service of slashing un-maintained verges once a year, on a programmed basis. Unfortunately, due to the large number of properties within the City, the City is unable to provide additional services or to vary the programme to suit individual residents.

View of Wattle Grove residential area showing road and verge

Resources

Some additional resources and services available include

Work which residents may carry out on their verge trees

Residents are permitted to carry out light under pruning and/or side pruning of their verge trees for the following reasons:

vision problems
removal of broken branches
trimming of branches over fence lines
trimming of branches for aesthetic purposes.

The City has implemented a scheduled annual verge tree pruning program for the whole of the City. Trees may be pruned when they are nearing power lines or where branches overhang the road or footpaths. When a tree is attended to by the City, for any purpose, the tree will also be under pruned to height of 1.5 metres (m).

Whose job is it to trim trees near powerlines?
Should the verge tree be a naturally occurring tree, under power lines, Western Power take responsibility for the pruning of these trees. Please contact Western Power on 13 13 51.
More details here

The City’s tree planting program is very active and undertaken throughout the year.

Residents are encouraged to landscape their verges.
Refer to the Verge Landscaping Conditions for information on what can be done.

Should residents wish to request a verge tree or enquire about maintenance of verge trees, please complete an online request or alternatively contact the City of Kalamunda on (08) 9257 9999 or email enquiries@kalamunda.wa.gov.au