Excavation in Wamberal
On a Wamberal Beach lot in Council's coastal hazard area, a dig for footings, a pool or a wall starts with two reports: a specialist coastal engineering report, which for Wamberal Beach must apply a named method, and a geotechnical report on the sub-strata and the type of foundations required. Council defines coastal hazard areas as land subject to coastal inundation or where piling into a stable foundation zone is required.
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Excavation around Wamberal
Council's coastal chapter adds a rule about the dig itself: sand excavated during building works should, where possible, stay within the same embayment, needs Council's approval to be reused at another beach, and must be shown to be clean. Council describes Wamberal Beach as having some of the worst impacts of coastal erosion of any beach in NSW, and says coastal protection works on private land are only permitted with development consent.
Behind the beachfront, Wamberal is a different job. Most of its residential land is on the Erina soil landscape over the Terrigal Formation, which the state soil survey describes as undulating to rolling rises and low hills, with localised mass movement among its limitations, and Council's geotechnical chapter asks for a report where slope and geology put a lot in its higher hazard categories. Low land around Wamberal Lagoon and Terrigal Lagoon is in Council's flood planning area, where cut and fill needs Council's approval.
Permits and Central Coast Council rules
Whether a particular lot is in a coastal hazard area is a question for Council's coastal hazard enquiry, not a map on a website. Complying development under the Housing Code can't be carried out on land that a Council plan or policy identifies as affected by a coastal hazard, so work on those beachfront lots goes through a development application.
Source: Central Coast DCP 2022 Chapter 3.2 (Coastal Hazard Management) Part C; Exempt and Complying Development Codes SEPP 2008 cl 1.19(1)(f); DCP Chapter 3.1 Part C — confirm current requirements with Central Coast Council.
Our Wamberal service area
A Wamberal enquiry is referred on to an independent provider, who gets in touch to look at the site.
See all Excavation on the Central Coast. We also work in Bateau Bay, a little further up the coast.
Call (02) 4326 8289Last reviewed · Updated · First published