unreal.......thanks everyone.

I feel heaps more relaxed now.

spider - I am indebted to you.

I had no idea I would have to prune that branch off later on.

I have already removed grass from around the tree - the mulch you see around
the tree is sugar cane mulch.

I picked the tree up at a hardware store (yeah weird I know) so they know
nothing about anything unless I want to cut or drill it :-))

The tree had a tag identifying it as Fraxinus Excelsior 'Aurea' (Golden
Ash) - fast growing deciduous tree 6-12 m.