Concrete driveways in Morisset

Driveways in Morisset, 2264

Morisset is 45 km south-west of Newcastle on the south-western side of the lake, with Dora Street running along the ridge beside the railway as the through road and shopping street, the 1887 station on it, and Freemans Drive heading out to the M1 interchange 2 km away. It began as a Crown subdivision cut while the railway was built, a sawmill and railway town of only 313 occupied homes in 1961, so the old grid holds a modest core of pre-war and mid-century cottages and most of the housing is later. Three dwellings in four are separate houses and one in five is a villa or townhouse, with several retirement villages. The growth is in the North Morisset release area, where land west of Terrigal Street is already being subdivided, and council’s draft place strategy calls the town the largest future growth area in the Central Coast and Hunter. Bare handover blocks, downsizers’ paths and old sloping streets are the three jobs.

A ridge town with creeks around it

Council describes the centre as land falling from the high ground between Bridge Street and Wharf Street to a low corner near Doyalson and Newcastle Streets, so an old grid driveway is a driveway on a fall; a council flood study covers the creeks around the town. Most of Morisset sits inside the West Lake Mine Subsidence District, with a sliver on the south-western fringe beside the M1 in the Mandalong district instead. Neither reaches the driveway, because driveways and hard stand spaces are on the Subsidence Advisory NSW exempt list under every guideline but 4 and 5; a garage or a shed slab is what sends an owner to the NSW Planning Portal Spatial Viewer.

Bare blocks, level paths and a slope in the old grid

On a North Morisset handover block the driveway, the crossing, the front path and the alfresco go in together, and with the M1 and the station so close the first pour is measured for two cars with a hardstand for the caravan or the trailer, in plain concrete or exposed aggregate. The villas and the retirement stock want level, slip-resistant paths and ramps more than driveways. In the old grid a cottage driveway on the fall that has cracked and stepped at the joints is a removal and replacement with the grades reset. Toronto, up the western shore, has the steeper version of the same work.

What Lake Macquarie approves on a Morisset lot

A first crossing on a release block and a replaced one in the old grid both need a Minor Public Works application with a site plan and a profile drawing. On the sloping streets the profile is where the 1 in 5 grade limit is checked, and the crossing is no more than 4 metres at the kerb, so a two-car driveway widens behind the boundary. The Section 138 guide explains what to lodge and when.

Finishes for cottages, villas and new builds

New builds on the release streets go for exposed aggregate or coloured concrete in charcoal, the villa stock stays with a broom finish for grip, and a cottage in the old grid is put back in plain grey. Whatever runs onto the crossing, council reinstates in plain grey only if it ever has to dig it up.

Morisset rates per square metre

Supplied and laid: coloured $115 to $160; exposed aggregate $130 to $185; plain concrete $95 to $130; shed and garage slabs $110 to $150; paths $90 to $130; patios and alfresco $100 to $180; removal of an old driveway adds about $35. On a handover block the price depends on whether the hardstand, the path and the alfresco share the driveway’s crew and truck; in the old grid it depends on the fall. Start with the calculator, go on to the cost guide, and measure any quote against the specification and the Section 138 guide.