Arborist Dave Brown on the job high above the ground. Photo: Dave Brown.
Dave Brown grew up in West Wollongong in the 70s doing the normal kid stuff like riding bikes and climbing trees.
As an adult, he has taken the latter to a professional level where scaling a 10- to 20-metre tree and balancing on a limb with a chainsaw in his hands is just another day at the David Brown Arbor Services office.
Dave, a contract arborist who is certified in many areas of tree care and removal, is also somewhat of a showman on the side.
“I love technology so I bought a drone seven years ago to document some of the more interesting jobs which I post on my YouTube channel,” he says.
“The drone is run by a phone app so it’s usually controlled by one of the other guys in the team from the ground or vice versa, because of course I’m not going to run a drone from a tree trunk while clutching a chainsaw.”
Safety is everything in his profession.
That covers not only the climbs but also the disposal of branches into powerful chipper machines, which have claimed lives in the past and caused horrific accidents when workers were pulled in.
“Chipper machines are a lot safer today, but they are still powerful machines with a deafening noise, so workers loading the chipper have to carefully watch each other’s body language,” says Dave.
“I’ve never been seriously injured in a tree or working the chipper, but I’ve had a few minor nicks from the chainsaw,” he adds.
And what about birds that flutter into the worksite – particularly magpies during mating season?
“No, I’ve never been bombed by a magpie on the job but we do find myna birds cause a stir when we’re trimming or removing a tree when they start chasing the resident possums, which is a nuisance,” says Dave.
A kookaburra keeps a close eye on Dave’s work. Photo: Andrew Dent.
On the brighter side of the job, Dave is treated to dazzling views from just about any suburb he works in.
“Once you go above the roofline you could be at Jamberoo or Corrimal and still get terrific views to the ocean or the escarpment or both,” he says.
On the question of climate change and the occurrence of ferocious storms and winds up to 120 km/h, Dave says over the 25 years he has been working it seems weather events are getting worse and more frequent.
“Extreme droughts and storms will have different effects but similar outcomes in terms of the survival of trees – both affect the roots and the tree will eventually fall over,” he says.
Dave has worked with dozens of tree varieties but his favourite is the jacaranda, a sub-tropical tree native to south-central South America.
“It has a beautiful timber and has wide open forks to anchor our ropes if we need to trim or remove it,” he says.
“I’m not fond of working with coral trees because they have thorns, very flexy, snappy timber and a horrible smell which it releases in full force if the chain saw hits one of the water cavities.”
At 50, Dave, who lives at West Wollongong with his partner and son, is still in good physical shape but he is starting to gravitate more to his ground-level arborist skills.
“I’m qualified in different areas of tree care and management from diagnostic skills to data collection,” he says.
“They are skills in demand by everyone from councils to housing estates, schools and hospitals, so that’s my long-term plan.”
Will he miss the climbing?
“Definitely, for me it’s a form of physical and mental focus that takes you to another place.”
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