Paving and drainage in Innaloo, about 12 km from Landsdale
For paving in Innaloo, IBP Paving travels about 12 km from our base in Landsdale, and the suburb sits inside our regular area. The jobs here lean towards renewal and drainage: replacing driveways and paths at older houses, paving courtyards for duplexes and units, and getting stormwater under control on ground that was once a swamp. All work is covered by our lifetime workmanship warranty and over 20 years of experience laying pavers around Perth.
Njookenbooroo, the market gardens and Herdsman Lake
Innaloo began as Njookenbooroo. In 1898 the swamp lands were subdivided as market gardens and drained into Herdsman Lake, and a Njookenbooroo Drainage District was gazetted to manage the water. The name Innaloo came later, chosen in 1927 from a list put together by Daisy Bates. That history is not just trivia for a paver. It explains why one Innaloo street can drain perfectly while the next, on lower ground, behaves differently after winter rain.
Timber framed homes, duplexes and units
Development in Innaloo was essentially complete by 1970. Most homes are single detached timber framed houses built around World War II, with duplexes and units mixed through the streets. For the houses, the usual job is a full paving replacement: the old driveway and paths come out, a compacted limestone base goes in, and a new driveway is laid in clay or concrete pavers. On the lower ground, settled pavers can be common, and our sunken paving repair service deals with dips that have formed over a soft or wet subgrade.
Unit sites bring their own work. Shared driveways, visitor bays and small private courtyards are typically renewed in one go so the levels and drainage work as a whole, which keeps water off neighbouring units and away from the timber framed walls.
If the job reaches the street, the City of Stirling has a say. A Crossover Installation Application must be approved before a crossover is built or modified, generally only one crossover is allowed per street frontage, and a single residential crossover is 3.0 to 6.0 m wide. Pavers on the crossover have to be heavy duty for vehicles, and asphalt is not permitted for residential crossovers. Where a mature street tree stands nearby, the crossover is set back 1 m to 4 m from it depending on the trunk diameter.
Source: City of Stirling, Crossover Policy and Crossover Guidelines Residential and Non Residential.
Sand, peat pockets and a little sea air
Most of Innaloo usually sits on Spearwood sand, which drains quickly and gives a firm base once compacted. The low parts of the old swamp are the exception. They typically have a shallower water table and may hold pockets of peat, which compress under load and can leave a driveway with a hollow years later. On those lots we dig out soft material, replace it with compacted limestone, and check how far down the water is before a soakwell is sized.
The coast is roughly 3 to 4 km to the west, close enough for light salt exposure on the western side. There we tend to suggest pavers with good salt resistance and a sealer, particularly for an exposed front driveway.
When groundwater is close: Stirling's drainage rules
The City of Stirling requires all rain falling on a lot to be held on site by soakwells or other approved systems. A standard Innaloo lot is designed for at least a 1 in 1 year, 60 minute storm, about 15 mm across the site, or impervious area in square metres times 0.015 for cubic metres of storage.
A drainage management plan, designed for a 1 in 20 year storm, applies where groundwater is within 1.2 m of the surface, among other triggers. Roof water and paved area runoff are infiltrated separately, any soakwell under a driveway, carport or garage must be trafficable on an approved base, and the City encourages permeable paving.
On the low swamp ground, those rules point towards wide shallow storage, separate systems for roof and paving, and sometimes a permeable paver that lets water soak through an open graded base. We design the stormwater drainage with the paving rather than as an afterthought. The full criteria are on our City of Stirling soakwell requirements page.
Source: City of Stirling, On Site Stormwater Drainage Criteria (June 2024).
Around Innaloo
Innaloo sits between Scarborough and Osborne Park, with Doubleview, Karrinyup, Gwelup and Stirling nearby. Each is serviced from Landsdale; the complete list is on areas we service.
