Revealed: The extent of tree canopy in your suburb

New suburbs in western Sydney not only have the least tree canopy coverage in the city, but they also will remain hot “moonscapes” because developers did not leave enough space to plant big trees, experts warn.

Greater Sydney will also struggle to almost double tree canopy citywide to 40 per cent by 2036 because the current growth rate is just a tenth of a percentage point each year.

The latest figures put out by the Department of Planning, Housing and Infrastructure suggest that Greater Sydney’s tree canopy increased slightly from 21.7 per cent in 2022-23 to 21.9 per cent in 2024-25. At that rate, it would reach 23 per cent by 2036.

A department spokesperson said the government was spending more than $60 million through the Greening our City program to help councils in Greater Sydney, the Illawarra-Shoalhaven and the Hunter-Central Coast plant trees and biodiverse understorey in parks, streets and neighbourhoods. More than half a million trees had been planted through large-scale partnerships between 2020 and the end of 2025, the spokesperson said.

“Research shows trees can reduce ground-level temperatures by up to six degrees, while communities with more than 30 per cent canopy cover experience improved mental and physical health outcomes,” the spokesperson said.

Gwilym Griffiths, co-founder of the Good Canopy Company, which helps local governments with urban forest management and planning, said the 40 per cent target was “aspirational and admirable … but in terms of being realistic, no, I don’t think it is, and this latest data set just really proves that”.

The more important part of the puzzle, Griffiths said, was the location of trees and the fact that the communities facing the greatest heat exposure were often the ones with the least canopy.

Some of the suburbs with the least canopy are new master-planned subdivisions in western Sydney, such as Melonba in Blacktown council area with 4.01 per cent canopy, and Oran Park and Gregory Hills in Camden council area with 4.12 per cent and 4.42 per cent respectively.

“Housing and canopy … need to be delivered as one, and we shouldn’t have to choose,” Griffiths said. “Good density can retain trees, and it can leave space for trees and treat trees as essential infrastructure.”

Peter Davies, professor of sustainability at Macquarie University, agreed the 40 per cent target was unrealistic.

“I understand the pressure to deliver housing, but there’s no point having lots of housing if it’s hot, there’s no aesthetic, and it’s just not comfortable,” he said.

Sebastian Pfautsch, a professor of urban management and planning at Western Sydney University, said most of these new developments were built on former paddocks, so there were not many existing trees.

“After some kind of arborist assessment, you have a group of trees that you identify that then become park trees in your new public park, and that’s it, there’s nothing else,” Pfautsch said. “It’s what we call moonscaping.”

The subdivisions are then left without any space or deep soil for trees in backyards, while the streets are planted with small trees such as water gums and crepe myrtles or medium species such as paperbarks and bottle brushes that do not provide much shade.

Pfautsch said a PhD student at WSU had just completed a project that showed that in a place like Kellyville, current planting of street trees would achieve only 6-9 per cent canopy in the next 20 years. Even growing the tallest species on all available public land would reach just 26 per cent canopy as there was no space for trees in private yards.

The leafy north shore lives up to its name, with 80.31 per cent tree canopy in Ku-ring-gai Chase, 43.7 per cent in Pymble, and 34.96 per cent in Mosman. The analysis counts only the parts of the suburb in the metropolitan urban area, meaning council-controlled bushland is counted but not national parks. In the inner city, Balmain has 22.89 per cent tree canopy, Darlinghurst has 22.77 per cent and Newtown 22.47 per cent.

“At least when you mention Darlinghurst or Newtown, you will still find some gardens in places, so you will still find some private canopy,” Pfautsch said. “You don’t have anything like that in the new suburbs in Western Sydney.”

Davies said most councils had good guidelines for canopy and landscaping in development control plans, and the NSW Government Architect also had good advice, but none of it was mandatory.

Tree canopy was under pressure in established leafy areas as well, Davies said.

“Even though you’ve got to go to council to get permission to cut down a tree, it’s a difficult one for councils because often their decisions are lot by lot, and they don’t account for the cumulative impact,” Davies said.

The tree canopy was measured with aerial photography, and the department used the same methodology and suburb and LGA boundaries for the comparison between 2022-23 and 2024-25.

With Nigel Gladstone

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