Storm Damage Clean Up: What to Do After a Storm in Adelaide

Adelaide’s winter and spring storms can bring down branches, flatten fences and scatter debris across yards in minutes. The north-east’s leafy foothill suburbs — Tea Tree Gully, Vista, Highbury and Banksia Park among them — often cop the worst of it, with big gums and established gardens. Here’s what to do, in order.

Step 1: Make it safe

Before you touch anything:

• Stay well clear of fallen powerlines and treat every line as live, even if it looks dead. Report them to SA Power Networks straight away and keep kids and pets inside.
• If a tree or large branch has fallen on the house, or there’s a roof leak or flooding you can’t manage, contact the SA State Emergency Service (SES).
• Watch for hanging branches. Partly broken limbs can fall without warning, especially in wind.
• Don’t use a chainsaw on trees under tension or on anything tangled in wires. That’s a job for a qualified arborist.
• Wait for daylight and calm weather if you can.

Step 2: Photograph everything for insurance

If you might make a claim, document the damage before you clean up:

• Wide shots showing the whole yard, then close-ups of each area of damage
• Fallen trees and where they’ve landed
• Damaged fences, sheds, carports, gutters and roofing
• Anything inside affected by water

Then call your insurer before arranging large-scale removal. Many policies have specific requirements about what they cover — for example, tree removal may only be covered where the tree has damaged the home or a fence. Ask what they need and whether they’ll want quotes.

Step 3: Sort what you can do yourself

Small stuff is fine to handle with gloves and sturdy shoes:

• Small branches, twigs and leaves
• Loose garden debris, blown-over pot plants and outdoor furniture
• Rubbish blown into the yard

Leave it for professionals:

• Large trees or limbs, particularly over the house, fence lines or driveways
• Anything near powerlines
• Damaged roofs (it’s not safe to climb on a wet roof)
• Collapsed structures like sheds and carports that are unstable

Step 4: Deal with the green waste

A single fallen limb can produce more green waste than several months of green bin collections. Your options:

• Your green bin — fine for small amounts, but you’ll be waiting weeks to get through a big pile.
• Council drop-off days — Tea Tree Gully’s Enviro Care days at St Agnes accept branches up to 20cm thick from residents in cars and trailers (no contractors). Salisbury residents can book one free garden organics voucher in spring for a NAWMA Resource Recovery Centre. Outside these, NAWMA centres accept green waste for a fee.
• Green waste removal — loaded by hand and taken away in one visit, including from tight backyards with no vehicle access.

Our guide to green waste options in North East Adelaide has more detail.

Step 5: Broken fences, sheds and debris

Storms don’t just bring down trees. We also clear:

• Broken fence panels and palings once the fence has been assessed (check your insurance first, and talk to your neighbour if it’s a shared fence)
• Damaged garden sheds, cubbies and pergolas that need to come down — see light demolition
• Mixed storm debris — roof sheeting, guttering offcuts, outdoor furniture and general rubbish

A warning about older structures: sheds, fences and eaves built before the mid-1980s may contain asbestos cement sheeting. If storm damage has broken fibro-style sheeting, don’t sweep, cut or break it further — get it checked. Our guide to shed demolition and asbestos in SA explains why.

Who’s responsible for a fallen tree?

This is one of the most common questions after a storm, and the answer depends on where the tree came from and where it landed:

• Your tree, in your yard: generally your job to clear, though your insurer may help if it damaged the house or a fence.
• A neighbour’s tree on your property: talk to your neighbour first, and both check with your insurers before anything is removed.
• A council street or reserve tree: report it to your council. Don’t cut up council trees yourself unless they’ve told you to.
• Trees on or near powerlines: leave them to SA Power Networks.

Also remember that some large trees in Adelaide are protected as regulated or significant trees under planning rules. If a damaged tree is still standing, check with your council before removing it — an arborist can help with that.

Before the next storm

A few jobs reduce damage when the next front comes through:

• Clear gutters and downpipes before winter so water doesn’t back up under the roof.
• Have large trees checked by an arborist, especially ones with dead limbs over the house.
• Prune back branches touching the roof or overhanging the driveway.
• Secure or store trampolines, outdoor furniture and loose sheeting.
• Fix loose fence palings and gates before they become missiles.
• Clear rubbish piles that could blow around the yard.

Regular property maintenance visits can take care of gutters, pruning and yard tidy-ups through the year.

What we do (and don’t do)

We clear storm debris, fallen branches and green waste, take down damaged small structures and tidy the yard afterwards. We’re not arborists — if a large tree needs felling, or work is needed near powerlines, use a qualified arborist first, and we can clear up the rest once it’s safe.

One customer said after we helped remove trees from their yard:

“James came on time with all the right tools to help me remove some trees. Great guy all round, would highly recommend!” — Photi K., Google review

Get the yard back

If a storm has left your yard a mess, send us a few photos and we’ll give you an upfront price for the clean up. We cover suburbs right across the north-east — check yours on our areas we service page.