Concreters in Kotara, 2289
Kotara is about nine kilometres south west of the Newcastle CBD. Park Avenue is its main road, leading to Westfield Kotara on Northcott Drive, and together with the Main North railway it divides the suburb into a northern pocket with views to Blackbutt Reserve and a southern pocket served by Joslin Street. It was launched in 1925 as a garden suburb by the Scottish Australian Mining Company, owners of the Lambton colliery, and it sold faster than it built: 178 of 191 lots had buyers by 1932, yet only 52 houses stood by 1940. The real growth came after 1947 and carried on into the mid 1980s. Today about 88 in 100 homes are separate houses, and the 2021 Census recorded no flats at all.
Slope comes first
Council’s character statement for Kotara speaks of “long steep driveways”, stone and brick retaining walls in front of the houses, and semi-basement garages on the steeper lots. Kotara also falls in the upper Styx Creek area of council’s flood study, and the Westfield car park was photographed under water in June 2007, so the foot of a slope deserves as much thought as the slope. Most of the suburb appears to be inside the Newcastle Mine Subsidence District, with a strip on the railway side shown outside it, so check the NSW Planning Portal Spatial Viewer before planning a garage.
Driveways built for smaller cars
On streets built between the late 1940s and the 1980s the original driveway is frequently still in place: narrow, cracked, and sometimes too sharp at the kerb or the garage for a modern car. Removal and replacement with gentler transitions and room for a second vehicle is the core job. South of the railway, council notes off-street parking at the rear or side of houses, which means parking slabs and the paths that reach them. Large back yards take a shed or garage slab, rear additions bring a patio or alfresco slab, and council observes that the big rectangular lots have made Kotara popular for medium density infill, so paired driveways for new dwellings are part of the mix.
Grip before looks
On a gradient, texture is a safety matter. A firm broom finish and exposed aggregate both give tyres and shoes something to hold, while smooth coloured surfaces belong on level ground such as a courtyard. For the crossing itself, council’s standard is plain broom finish.
What a slope does to the price
The rate card is the same on a hill as on the flat: $95 to $185 a square metre for a concrete driveway depending on finish, $130 to $185 where that finish is exposed aggregate, $90 to $130 for paths, $100 to $180 for patios and alfresco slabs and $110 to $150 for shed and garage slabs, all supplied and laid, with about $35 on top where old concrete is removed. What a slope changes is quantity: more excavation, a pump to reach the top of a long run, drainage at the bottom and sometimes a low retaining edge. A long driveway is worth pricing twice, once in the calculator and once against the cost guide, with the Section 138 guide and the specification read ahead of the measure.
Council and the crossing
Kotara sits in the City of Newcastle 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: Adamstown, New Lambton, Charlestown