Where, and under which rulebook
Twenty suburbs, two councils
Driveways from the harbour to Morisset, and the two sets of rules that govern the crossing between your boundary and the kerb. Each suburb page is written for that suburb's houses, ground and council.
The crossing in Newcastle
In the City of Newcastle a driveway crossing is approved under a Section 138 (Type 1) application. Type 1 covers a residential driveway and, where a stormwater or service pipe has to go through the verge, a road opening permit on the same form. Type 2 is for public infrastructure and is not an owner’s concern. Building a new crossing, widening one, removing one and altering one all sit inside the same approval, and council’s own post-consent guidance is to lodge as early as practical once a DA or CDC is issued, because nothing can be poured on the footway until the approval letter exists.
The build is dictated by council’s standard drawing A1300. For a house it gives a single crossing between 2.5 and 3.0 metres wide and a double between 2.5 and 4.5 metres, set square to the kerb, poured to a minimum 100 mm in 25 MPa concrete with SL72 mesh in the top of the slab under 40 mm of cover, with joints no more than 3 metres apart. Clearances are 750 mm to a power pole, 1 metre to a kerb inlet pit and 3 metres to the trunk of a street tree, and a 1.2 metre strip at a grade of 1 in 40 is held across the crossing for a future footpath whether or not one exists today.
On finish, the drawing calls for plain concrete with a broom texture and bevelled edges. Coloured, patterned, exposed aggregate and stencilled concrete “may be considered” by council. Stamped concrete, asphalt and sealer are barred from the crossing altogether, which matters if an exposed aggregate driveway was going to be sealed right down to the gutter.
Council’s approval letter takes precedence over the drawing, sets the grades together with AS 2890.1, and is what a formwork inspection is booked against before any concrete goes down. Council does not publish a fee or a processing time for a Type 1 application on the pages this site could read; the enquiry line is 02 4974 2000. The Section 138 guide walks through the lodgement from a driveway owner’s side.
Lake Macquarie City Council
Lake Macquarie suburbs
Enquiries 02 4921 0333. Council pages: application, standard.
The crossing in Lake Macquarie
Lake Macquarie City Council handles a driveway crossing as a Minor Public Works application, its name for a Section 138 consent, lodged in council’s own online services portal with “Application for access to property” chosen as the type. It carries two flattened PDF attachments, a site plan with the driveway marked and a profile drawing of the fall from gutter to house over the existing ground. The fee is worked out inside the form and paid by card when it is submitted, so no single figure is published. Two things council states without hedging: a DA or CDC does not approve the crossing, and a replacement crossing needs a fresh application and a fresh fee.
Council’s timing is published. An application with nothing unusual in it takes 10 to 15 working days by council’s own estimate, and its Minor Public Works page asks applicants to allow about 21 days. The approval letter that comes back says whether council will inspect before the pour or after it, and it is the document a private certifier will want to see when a DA or CDC carries a driveway condition.
The standard is heavier than Newcastle’s. A residential crossing is at least 125 mm thick, 25 MPa concrete with SL72 mesh, dowelled into the kerb, at least 3 metres wide and no more than 4 metres wide at the kerb with the wings excluded, or 5 metres at the boundary, no steeper than 1 in 5 unless council specifically allows it. Clearances: 750 mm to a power or light pole, 500 mm to a stormwater pit, 300 mm to a telecommunications pit, 6 metres to a corner’s tangent point. The detail is on drawings EGSD 201 and 202.
Finish is where council is specific. Council’s preference is plain concrete, coved or broomed. Coloured and stencilled concrete pass when sealed with a non-slip product, and exposed aggregate passes only with rhyolite or basalt making up 75 percent or more of the stone. If council ever has to dig a crossing up, it puts it back in plain concrete and nothing else. Council also wants the contractor on the crossing carrying adequate insurance and the right licence, and puts the Before You Dig check on the owner. The Section 138 guide puts the steps in order.
Asked before quoting
Area questions
Which council is my suburb in?
The eleven City of Newcastle suburbs on this site are Adamstown, Fletcher, Jesmond, Kotara, Lambton, Maryland, Mayfield, Merewether, New Lambton, Newcastle and Wallsend. The nine Lake Macquarie suburbs are Belmont, Cameron Park, Cardiff, Charlestown, Edgeworth, Glendale, Morisset, Toronto and Warners Bay. Kotara straddles the boundary and is treated as Newcastle here; a rates notice settles any doubt.
Do both councils use the NSW Planning Portal for driveway approvals?
Neither does. The portal's Section 138 service is only for councils that opt in, and when this site checked the published list in September 2026 City of Newcastle and Lake Macquarie City Council were not on it. Newcastle's is a Section 138 (Type 1) application lodged with council; Lake Macquarie's is a Minor Public Works application lodged in its own online services.
Is my suburb in a mine subsidence district?
Many are, wholly or in part, across both council areas. Each suburb page says what the state district map shows for that suburb, in the words the map supports. For a driveway it rarely matters, because driveways and hard stand spaces are exempt under all Subsidence Advisory NSW guidelines except 4 and 5. For a property answer, put the address into the Spatial Viewer on the NSW Planning Portal.