Brisbane man who broke his back falling from tree gets perfect 'revenge'

A Brisbane man who almost crippled himself when he fell from a tree in his youth has gone viral after deciding to climb them for a living.

Bradley Lewis told Today he was on a trip to Byron Bay with his mates, when he lost his grip while swinging from a tree.

"I bloody fell out of a tree and broke my back in four places, got three compressed vertebrae and fractures to 30 per cent of my spine," he said.

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"I sort of swung out and then I just slipped and landed head first, folded myself up like a table and my legs went numb, so that scared the life out of me a fair bit, but I could still move my feet, so I was like, 'I might be alright."'

The injuries meant Bradley lost an inch in height and while such a serious accident would normally scare someone off ever climbing a tree again, Bradley decided to become a professional tree lopper.

"That wasn't fun, but there's no point punching a tree because the tree will win every time," he said.

Instead of shying away from tree-climbing, Bradley "grabbed the bull by the horns" and made it his profession, exacting his revenge on trees and getting paid for it.

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"When I did not like trees that much, I used to just prefer cutting them down," he said.

"But now pruning is really good because you can shape your tree into a really nice, beautiful, natural sort of look and you can maintain it really easy - trees are beautiful, they're nice, I like them now mate."

Hear the full chat with Bradley in the video above