Two kinds of line
Network lines run along the street on poles and belong to the network operator: Ausgrid in the Sutherland Shire, St George, inner and eastern Sydney, and Endeavour Energy in much of western and south-western Sydney and the Illawarra.
Your service line runs from the pole to your house.
Who trims what
In Ausgrid areas:
- Your tree near your service line: you’re responsible, up to your boundary. Ausgrid clears council land.
- A council verge tree or a neighbour’s tree near your service line: Ausgrid clears it.
- Trees near street lines: Ausgrid and its contractors.
In Endeavour Energy areas: you keep trees on your property clear of your service line. If a neighbour’s tree is the problem, Endeavour says it will take steps to have it pruned. Endeavour warns that if required work isn’t done, your power may be disconnected.
Under the Electricity Supply Act, a network operator can serve a notice requiring a tree to be trimmed or removed, and do the work itself if the notice is ignored. It pays the reasonable cost unless you planted the tree when you should have known it would interfere with the lines.
The 3 m rule
Ausgrid is blunt about whether homeowners can trim near its lines: no. Any trimming within 3 m of Ausgrid’s lines must be done by workers accredited under the SafeWork NSW code.
SafeWork’s new code, Work near overhead and underground electric lines (in force since 22 May 2026), sets the distances:
- Anyone not trained for this work: stay 3 m away from lines up to 132 kV. Don’t climb a tree within 3 m of a line, cut branches that could come within 3 m, or work above lines.
- Trained workers with a safety observer: can work closer, down to 0.5 m from insulated low-voltage lines or 1 m from bare ones.
- Inside the no-go zone: only people authorised by the network.
“Trees and tree branches can conduct electricity, even in dry conditions.” A branch touching a line can make the whole tree live, leaves included.
When a tree comes down on a line
- Stay at least 8 m away (two car lengths). Treat the line as live, and the tree too.
- Call the network: Ausgrid 13 13 88, Endeavour Energy 131 003. Call 000 if anyone is hurt or there’s fire.
- Keep others away until the network has made it safe.
- Then call us to remove the tree once the power is off and the network says it’s clear.
Our arborists hold Electrical Close Approach licences for work near service lines. Network lines are for the network and its contractors.