Concreters in Edgeworth, 2285
Edgeworth, eighteen kilometres west of the Newcastle CBD, was Young Wallsend until 1960, a colliery township whose 1885 grid still carries the names of mining men: Thomas, Turnbull, Croudace, Neilson. Until after the war it was a line of scattered homes along Main Road, 153 of them in 1947. Sewerage in 1959, the library on Minmi Road in 1966, project housing in 1973 and Edgeworth Town Square in 1978 mark the decades in which the established suburb was built. Now it is growing again: Brush Creek Estate brought more than 200 lots, council’s Edgeworth Area 1 plan covers about 117 off Neilson Street, and the 181-lot Transfield Estate between Minmi Road, Transfield Avenue and Tarkalong Street was approved in November 2024.
Cut, fill and the ground below
Council’s controls for the Neilson Street release show what new lots here can involve: some are to be founded on shallow rock to reduce landslip risk, excavations over a metre need an engineered retaining wall, and fill is placed in 200 mm layers and benched into the slope. Those rules belong to that estate alone, yet they describe the kind of block a driveway often has to cross. Edgeworth is also among the localities affected by the Cockle Creek catchment, with a flood recorded in 1981. The suburb appears to lie wholly inside the Lake Macquarie Mine Subsidence District, which is a question for sheds and garages, not for flat concrete.
Two suburbs, two job lists
In the release areas, lots as small as 300 to 450 square metres make for a short driveway, a narrow side passage and concrete taken right to the boundary line. Owners there add paths along the side and an alfresco slab larger than the pad the builder supplied. The older core produces the opposite job: a driveway laid when the 1970s estates were new, now cracked or sunken and ready for removal and replacement. A shed or garage slab commonly follows.
Finishes old and new
New frontages are commonly finished in exposed aggregate or a coloured mix, while plain broom finish suits side passages, shed floors and most renewals in the older streets. At the kerb, Lake Macquarie will restore a dug-up crossing in plain concrete and nothing else, a sound reason to stop a decorative driveway at the property line.
Edgeworth rates per square metre
New lot or old street, the rate card is one and the same, supplied and laid: alfresco and patio slabs $100 to $180; paths $90 to $130; shed and garage slabs $110 to $150; driveways $95 to $185 depending on whether the finish is plain, coloured or exposed; exposed aggregate $130 to $185; and an extra $35 or so where a worn-out slab is removed first. On a new Edgeworth lot the base is what moves a price, because filled ground may need more excavation and compaction before any concrete is ordered. Put your numbers in the calculator, learn from the cost guide what a rate includes, and go through the Section 138 guide and the specification well ahead of handover.
Council and the crossing
Edgeworth sits in the Lake Macquarie City Council area. What that council asks of a driveway crossing is set out on the areas page and, step by step, in the Section 138 guide.
Nearby: Cameron Park, Glendale, Cardiff