Storm Damage Clean-Up Across the Kiama Coast

The morning after

The southerly blows itself out overnight and by first light the damage is obvious. A limb across the driveway at Werri Beach. Banksia flattened behind the Bombo dunes. A fig branch through the shadecloth in Minnamurra. Fronds and debris strewn across the road up toward Saddleback Mountain, and a paddock tree in Rose Valley lying on its side with the root plate standing straight up.

Nobody is hurt. Nothing is on the house. It is just an enormous mess, and it is not going anywhere on its own.

That is this job. Call (02) 4214 4543 — seven days, 6am to 7pm.

This is a normal year on this coast

On 8 October 2025 an Illawarra wind event pushed 67km/h gusts through Kiama. Around 980 Gerringong properties lost power, lines on a telegraph pole on Sandy Wha Road were left sparking, and a large tree came down across the rail corridor at Gerringong, cancelling trains between Kiama and Bomaderry in both directions (Illawarra Mercury). An earlier Illawarra blow recorded 93km/h at Kiama with more than 10,000 properties off supply across the region.

Not a freak season. Just this coast.

What the clean-up covers

• Cut-up of fallen trunks and limbs into manageable sections.
• Removal of hung-up and hanging limbs still lodged in the crown — the ones that come down on the next gust, usually onto whoever is standing underneath.
• Clearing driveways, paths, gates and roof access so you can actually use the property again.
• Careful extraction off structures — fences, sheds, pergolas, pool fencing, colorbond. Rigged and lowered rather than dragged.
• Chipping on site, with the chip left as mulch if you want it, or loaded out.
• Green waste carted away so nothing sits on the nature strip for a fortnight.
• A final tidy — ground raked, hard surfaces blown down.

If the tree is still on the house, or wires are involved, that is not this page. Go to emergency tree removal and read the first section before you do anything else.

Three ways trees fail here, and what each one leaves behind

Limb shed on the exposed coast. Salt-laden wind dries and embrittles the outer crown. Norfolk Island pines, coastal banksia and older ornamentals along the Kiama Downs, Bombo and Gerroa frontage shed heavy limbs cleanly and without warning. What is left is a scattered mess plus, almost always, more damaged wood still hanging in the tree. Clearing the ground and ignoring the crown is how people end up calling twice.

Root plate failure inland. Jamberoo Valley, Foxground and the wetter escarpment ground hold water after sustained rain. A saturated root plate loses grip and the whole tree goes over intact, lifting a slab of soil with it. Big job, more machinery, and a crater to deal with afterwards.

Deadwood, everywhere. Most of the "it exploded" calls are deadwood that has been sitting in the crown since the last dry summer. It is the first material to fly and the easiest thing in the world to have removed beforehand.

Insurance: do this bit properly

Before anything is moved, photograph it. The tree, the failure point, the damage, the wider scene. Date and time. Keep the written quote and the invoice.

Ring your insurer early. Many policies handle making the property safe and clearing the debris under different terms, and knowing which applies before the crew arrives saves an argument later.

What we do not touch

Anything with a power line in it. Stay 8 metres back, treat every conductor as live including one lying in wet grass, and call Endeavour Energy on 131 003 — they run the Illawarra and South Coast network. A crew does not start work around live wires.

Council street and verge trees. Road reserve is Council-managed public land. Report those to Kiama Council on 02 4232 0444.

Structural work. We clear the tree. Roofing, glazing and building repairs are somebody else's trade, and you want the tree off before they quote.

And a note on permits: routine storm clean-up of already-fallen material is not the same as removing a standing tree. Standing trees on private land in Kiama are generally protected under the Kiama Development Control Plan 2020, Chapter 2, Topic 2.4, with a separate pathway for trees that are dead or an imminent danger — that pathway needs arborist evidence before work starts and notification to Council afterwards. Confirm with Council if you are unsure. Source: Kiama Council — Tree Management application form.

The cheapest storm job is the one you did in autumn

Almost every expensive storm call-out we see was preventable, and cheaply.

Deadwood out of the crown. Hanging and crossing limbs taken off. A crown reduction on the tree that is catching too much wind, so it stops acting like a sail. Structural pruning on the young trees before the problem sets. Palms skirted before the fronds get heavy.

Do it in the cooler months, before the block is saturated and before everyone else in the LGA is ringing at once.

Get the yard back

Tell us what came down, roughly how much of it there is, and whether a truck and chipper can get near it. That is enough to give you a realistic idea over the phone.

We cover the whole LGA — see Suburbs — and the home page lists everything else, including full tree removal if what is left standing is no longer worth keeping.

Call (02) 4214 4543 — open 7 days, 6am to 7pm. Urgent jobs are prioritised.