Do I Need a Permit to Remove a Tree?

In South East Queensland, often yes. Every council here protects some vegetation on private land — Brisbane through the Natural Assets Local Law, Moreton Bay through a 400 mm trunk threshold and overlay mapping, Logan through its planning scheme vegetation categories, and so on. Whether your particular tree is caught depends on how your property is mapped, which is why the first step is always a written enquiry to your council rather than a guess.

No, and it does not try to be. It walks the same decision tree an arborist walks, which is enough to tell you where you stand and what to ask. But protection status comes from council mapping, and only the council can confirm that in writing. Every result here ends by telling you to get it confirmed.

Penalties for unlawful vegetation damage in South East Queensland run into tens of thousands of dollars, and councils do prosecute. Enforcement is usually triggered by a neighbour complaint or by aerial imagery comparison. The tree cannot be put back, so the cost is the fine plus the loss plus, frequently, a condition requiring replacement planting.

Not necessarily, and this is the most expensive misconception in Brisbane. Section 44 of the Natural Assets Local Law exempts a dead tree only where it is under 20 cm in trunk diameter AND not providing habitat for native fauna — both, not either. A dead 60 cm gum full of hollows is fully protected, and removing it is an offence. Other South East Queensland councils word it differently but most attach similar limits. There is a second trap underneath: dead and severely declining are not the same thing, and that is what gets argued about afterwards.

Partly. A neighbour's tree falls under the Neighbourhood Disputes (Dividing Fences and Trees) Act 2011, which is a separate system from your council's vegetation local law. Both can apply at once — the Act governs what you can require of your neighbour, the local law governs whether the tree can lawfully be touched at all.