Butler paving: first driveways and first relays in Brighton
Butler is the youngest suburb IBP Paving serves in numbers. It was bushland until the early 2000s, then Satterley's Brighton estate filled it through the 2000s and 2010s to a population of about 13,500. Nearly every lot is small, nearly every house is a single storey brick and tile or rendered home on a sand pad, and nearly every paving job is a first: the first driveway after handover, the first alfresco surround, the first side path. The earliest Brighton streets are now fifteen to twenty years old and their driveways are starting to need relaying. We make the trip from Landsdale, about 23.8 km, and stand behind the work with a lifetime workmanship warranty and over 20 years of experience.
Building in Butler? The verge licence and nature strip rules
A new home on a small Butler lot has nowhere to put a pallet of pavers except the verge, and the City of Wanneroo has rules for that before any paving starts.
"It is an offence to place anything in the verge area without the City's approval." A Verge Licence for storing materials is charged at "$1.10 Per m2 Per Month", and "Street trees are to be provided with a 'Tree Protection Zone' in accordance with the City's Street Tree Policy." On the finished nature strip, "In residential areas, brick paving or concrete may be laid on the nature strip" to Standard Drawing TS 07-9, "maintained at a positive 2% gradient from the back of the kerb", with "No gravel, crushed bricks or loose stones" and no "Loose materials, fencing, rocks and walls".
Sources: City of Wanneroo, Verge Licence information (Public Places and Local Government Property Local Law 2015); Nature strip guidelines.
The nature strip guidelines also keep a 2 metre strip parallel to the kerb clear of landscaping, cap planting near crossovers and intersections at 600 mm, and recommend submitting a nature strip landscape proposal when a property is developed. The City does not state a percentage limit on nature strip paving, so we work to the drawing rather than a number.
Street trees and the 1.5 metre crossover rule
Brighton's street trees were planted with the estate and are still young, which is exactly when the City of Wanneroo's City Tree Policy protects them most. Crossovers "shall be located a minimum of 1.5 metres from a City tree", with a reduction to 1 metre considered case by case, and a tree being "in the way of a non-essential crossover or verge paving/treatment option" is not a sufficient reason to remove it. Where a crossover would require removal or sit within 1 metre of a tree, the City assesses the tree, and if removal is approved the owner pays for both the removal and the replacement. New trees are planted 1.5 metres from crossovers, 1 metre from the kerb and 2.4 to 3 metres from the front boundary. We lay out a new driveway with those distances marked before a paver goes down.
Source: City of Wanneroo, City Tree Policy (December 2024); Nature strip guidelines.
Salt two kilometres from the beach
Butler is on the Spearwood dune system, which the City of Wanneroo lists by name, and the estate called The Dunes says as much. The ground is yellow sand over Tamala Limestone: easy to compact, quick to drain, with the occasional shelf of rock on a deep soakwell dig. The beach is about 2 km west. That distance puts the suburb inside the marine exposure band in the brick industry's durability classification, where general purpose grade clay units and dense wet-cast concrete pavers are the right choice and sealing is worth the cost on west facing surfaces; our sealing and cleaning page explains when. Soakwells follow the City's 1 cubic metre per 60 square metres design rule and its width based setback, set out on our City of Wanneroo soakwell requirements page. East of the freeway the suburb meets the Nowergup bushland, and homes on that edge benefit from non combustible paving against the house.
Sources: City of Wanneroo, Development Design Specification WD5 (June 2019); Midland Brick and Think Brick, Brick Durability factsheet (August 2025).
Small lots, narrow crossovers
Butler lots are narrow enough that the crossover is usually at the City's 3 metre minimum and the driveway widens only once it clears the verge. We pave the driveway in 60 mm pavers on a compacted limestone base, wrap the alfresco slab in matching pavers, and lay the side path that doubles as the route for the bins and the drainage. In the oldest Brighton streets, the first relays are now arriving, mostly where the builder's driveway was laid on fill that was never compacted. Jindalee and Ridgewood, the smaller suburbs either side, and the southern streets of Quinns Rocks are served from this page.
Nearby suburbs
Butler sits between Alkimos to the north and Clarkson to the south, with Mindarie down the coast and Jindalee, Ridgewood, Merriwa and Quinns Rocks alongside. All are on areas we service.
