How to get your property ready before the machine arrives

The jobs that run smoothest are the ones where the owner has done twenty minutes of prep before we roll in. None of it is hard, and all of it saves you money because the machine spends the day working instead of waiting.

Mark what stays

Walk the area and peg or tape anything you want kept: young plantings, a favourite tree, a septic lid, a water line, a survey peg, a dog kennel. From the seat of a machine in thick scrub, a knee high sapling you love looks exactly like the ones we are removing.

Know where your services are

Underground power, water lines, telecommunication runs, irrigation, septic tanks and trenches. If you know roughly where they run, mark them. For anything you are unsure about, a Before You Dig enquiry is free and worth doing on site prep and grading work.

• Before You Dig Australia

  Free underground service enquiry

Access, gates and clearances

Tell us the gate width, any low branches over the track, soft crossings, and whether a tilt tray can turn around at the top. If a gate is locked, leave it unlocked or leave the combination. If the neighbour's paddock is the easier way in, sort that before the day.

Decide where material goes

With mulching, the material stays on the ground, so the decision is mostly about depth and where you want it thinner, like around trunks or across a track. If material is being pushed into a pile instead, pick the spot before we start, somewhere you can get to later and clear of fence lines and drainage.

Move what can be moved

Cars, trailers, hay, star pickets, old fencing wire, dumped rubbish and steel. Wire is the big one, it wraps around a mulcher head and turns a productive hour into an unproductive one.

People, pets and stock

Keep kids, dogs and stock out of the work area for the day. Livestock in adjoining paddocks are fine, but they need to be behind a fence we are not working on.

Be reachable

You do not have to stand there all day, but a phone you answer is worth a lot. Decisions come up: an extra tree, a section that is worse than it looked, a better spot for the pile. A two minute call keeps the job moving.

Got a job in mind? Send your address and we'll come out, have a look, and put a written quote together. No obligation.