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Trees, grass and nature strips

City Services is responsible for the ACT’s urban trees and grass mowing.

Visit the City Services website.

Nature strips

If you want to landscape the nature strip next to your home (other than growing grass) you may need approval.

Visit the City Services website to read about nature strips.

Trees in public spaces

The ACT Government manages trees on public land such as parks, nature strips and road verges. You cannot remove public trees unless you have written approval to do so.

Visit the City Services website to read about trees on public land.

Trees on private land

Trees on private property may be protected as a regulated or registered tree. You must obtain approval prior to removal, major pruning, and groundworks within a specified zone of a protected tree.

If your tree is not regulated or registered you do not need approval from the ACT Government to remove, prune or do groundworks near the tree.

Visit the City Services website to read about trees on private land.

Tree damage and safety

Call Access Canberra on 13 22 81 to report trees that pose an immediate threat to public safety. If it is not an emergency, you can:

  • contact Evoenergy on 13 10 93 if a tree is touching power lines or has brought them down
  • contact Telstra on 13 22 03 if a tree is touching telephone wires or has brought them down
  • use the Fix My Street form if you’re concerned about the safety of a tree or need to report damage caused by a tree on public land.

Use the Fix My Street form

ACT tree register

The ACT tree register lists trees of exceptional value that must be protected. This includes trees on public and private land with high heritage, landscape or scientific value.

Visit the City Services website to read about the ACT tree register including how to nominate a tree.

Anyone can nominate a suitable tree online.

Nominate a tree for the tree register

Request reconsideration of a tree nomination

Registered tree search

You can locate registered trees on the ACTmapi website.

View the ACT tree register on the City Services website.

Grass mowing

The ACT’s annual mowing program normally runs from September to March.

Visit the City Services website to read about grass mowing.

Heavy rain or high fire danger can impact the schedule.

To report overgrown grass or weeds on public land, use the Fix My Street Form.

Street sweeping

Roads ACT runs a street sweeping program that removes leaves and other debris from gutters along our road network. Every street in Canberra receives at least two sweeps a year.

Leaf litter from street trees is removed between April and September each year. Effort is focused on suburbs with mature deciduous trees.

Find more information, including the street sweeping schedule, on the City Services website.

Upcoming maintenance

You can find out what maintenance works are going on in your region each week on the City Services website.

Information is updated every Friday and includes:

  • bin collection
  • mowing
  • weed spraying
  • road resurfacing
  • road closures
  • footpath upgrades
  • street sweeping
  • water quality.

Visit the City Services website to find out what's happening this week in your region.