

Mark Hartley
Education Chair | Arborist Network
Monday | 9:30am
TALK TITLE
Shaping tree transplanting through innovation and technology
BIO
Mark Hartley is a second-generation Australian arborist whose career spans over four decades. Mark has received the ISA’s Award of Merit for his contribution to arboriculture and has received six awards of Excellence in Arboriculture from the TCIA for transplanting and tree pruning.
His expertise in tree risk assessment, anatomy, diseases, and transplanting have resulted in him providing arboricultural services in 10 countries over three continents. He has provided advice to householders, celebrities, and Royalty alike.
Mark has always been passionate about learning and continues to study in Australia and overseas. He was a regular at Shigo’s tree anatomy workshops, where he developed a love for tree anatomy and everyday tree physiology. His curiosity, systems thinking, and problem-solving nature have assisted him in developing innovative solutions for tree transplanting and stem wound treatment.
Having served as the Education Chair of Arboriculture Australia for more than a decade, Mark is dedicated to improving education in arboriculture. He regularly spends time delivering workshops and training globally. Mark’s enthusiasm for arboriculture and engaging and dynamic delivery style will leave you wanting more.
ABSTRACT
Tree transplanting in Australia has changed in many ways since the early 1970s. In the early days tree transplanting involved lots of manual labour and was often limited to moving of palms and small trees. In ground tree farming was underway in Victoria but container growing was the norm.
Over time, larger trees started to be transplanted, and clients started to make requests that stretched the knowledge and skills of those that transplanted trees. In NSW Stuart Pitman of Civic Trees started to work on transplanting progressively larger trees. In the late1980s Civic trees moved a Port Jackson Fig (Fred) with a four-metre diameter root plate into darling Harbour while Alpine Nurseries (Arthur Maait) supplied palm trees.
This process was repeated in other states around the same time. As a result, the expectations of landscape architects and designers and the public in general started to change. This altered transplanting forever. Bigger became the mantra. Transplanting started to rely on progressively larger and more expensive cranes which in turn drove innovation.