About
Sam Schriever
Director & Consulting Arborist
Sam grew up around native bluegum plantation forestry and studied plant and soil science at the University of Queensland before founding Get It Done - Tree Services. He has owned and operated the business since 2020, and today provides expert arboricultural consulting across Brisbane and South East Queensland.
He assesses trees and writes the reports councils accept — he does not remove them. That is the point of the practice: with no removal work riding on the outcome, the assessment you get is the one the evidence supports.
The way this works
How we work
Three commitments that apply to every job, whether it is a single backyard tree or a development application with thirty of them.
Fixed price, quoted up front
You know the cost before anything starts. No hourly billing that drifts past the estimate, and no invoice that surprises you.
Plain English
Reports have to satisfy an assessing officer, but you should be able to read yours and understand what it says. Jargon that exists to sound authoritative is just a barrier.
An honest answer
If your situation is exempt, or the report you were quoted for is more than your council needs, you will be told. Losing a job is cheaper than earning a reputation for upselling.
The business
Get It Done - Tree Services
Arboricultural consultancy · Brisbane
Get It Done started in 2020 doing the physical work — removals, pruning and stump grinding across Brisbane and the councils around it. That grounding still shows in the reports. A tree protection specification that cannot actually be implemented by a real crew on a real site is not a good specification, however well it reads on paper.
The practice is consulting only now: assessment and reporting, no tree work. Nothing is quoted on the tree being assessed and nothing rides on any particular conclusion — which is precisely why councils want the assessment to come from someone other than the contractor holding the chainsaw.
Every assessment is carried out by a qualified consulting arborist and signed off at AQF Level 5, so the person who inspects your tree is the person who writes the report on it. The practice is fully insured and works across Brisbane, Logan, Moreton Bay, Ipswich, Redland & the Gold Coast.
- ABN93 237 837 443
- Operating since2020
- Service areaSouth East Queensland
Capabilities
What this practice can be engaged for
Grouped by the problem you arrive with rather than by the name of the report, because most people do not know which one they need — and frequently the answer is a smaller job than the one they were quoted for.
Assessment & reporting
Condition and structural assessment for council permit applications, risk assessment for managed and public-facing properties, and inspections for buyers before they commit.
Development & construction
Impact assessment for development applications, protection specifications the site team can actually build to, and named-arborist supervision where approval conditions call for it.
Diagnostics & management
Investigation where a tree is declining and the cause is not obvious, and whole-of-site planning for bodies corporate, schools, and larger landholdings.
Disputes & valuation
Independent reporting for neighbour disputes, QCAT matters and insurance claims, and amenity valuation where a tree has been damaged or removed without consent.
Who this practice works for
- Homeowners
- Builders & developers
- Bodies corporate & property managers
- Solicitors & insurers
- Landscape architects & designers
- Local government
Trees are a soil problem first
Most arborists are trained to read a tree from the outside in — canopy density, deadwood, structural defects, decay indicators. That skill matters, and it is the foundation of the work. But it describes a condition rather than explaining it, and a description is not much use when you are deciding whether to spend money on a tree.
Sam came to arboriculture from the other direction, having studied plant and soil science at the University of Queensland — where the focus is what happens below ground: soil structure, compaction, drainage, root environments, nutrient availability, and the pathology that follows when those go wrong. In urban Brisbane, that is where the majority of tree failure actually begins. Fill dumped over a root zone during a renovation. A trench cut through structural roots for a service line. A root collar buried under turf and mulch for a decade. Drainage altered by a new driveway.
Reading the canopy tells you a tree is stressed. Reading the soil tells you why, and whether it can be reversed. That distinction is the difference between a report that documents a decline and a report that gives you something to act on, and it is the standard every assessment here is held to.
A background in forestry
Sam grew up around commercial forestry. His family managed bluegum plantation, and enough time in it builds the habit of thinking about trees on a twenty-year horizon rather than a twenty-minute one. Plantation forestry teaches you to think about tree populations, succession, site suitability and long-run economics — not just the specimen in front of you.
That perspective shows up in the reporting. The question is not only what condition a tree is in today, but what it will be in five and fifteen years, and whether the money you are about to spend buys you that time.
Why consulting only
When the business quoting on your removal is also the business telling you the tree needs removing, there is a conflict sitting in the middle of the advice. Councils know this, which is part of why they want an independent assessment. With no removal work at stake, this practice has nothing to gain from any particular conclusion — including the conclusion that your tree is fine and you do not need a report at all.
Having done the removal work for years, Sam also knows what is actually involved in executing a recommendation, and what a crew will do when a specification is unclear. That is not a small thing when your approval conditions depend on the work being done the way the report says it will be.
Have a tree you're unsure about?
Send a photo and the address. Often that is enough to tell you whether you have a problem worth paying to investigate.