Watermans Bay paving at a glance
IBP Paving lays and replaces paving in Watermans Bay from our yard in Landsdale, about 11 km away in a straight line. The work here is driveways, paths, alfresco areas and the soakwells that go with them, built to City of Stirling drainage rules and finished in materials that cope with sea air. We bring over 20 years of Perth paving experience, and a lifetime workmanship warranty covers what we lay.
From Mt Flora Estates shacks to two storey brick
The suburb was subdivided as the Mt Flora Estates in 1918, but it stayed a place of holiday shacks until after World War II. Building then moved quickly and nearly every lot was taken by 1961. What stands today runs from timber and fibro cottages through to modern two storey brick homes.
So Watermans Bay paving tends to be old or brand new. On the older houses, decades of settlement have left driveways and paths uneven, and a full replacement on a new base is usually the sound answer. Where a cottage has been demolished, the new home needs a driveway, side access and an alfresco laid in one go, often in limestone to suit the coast.
How Stirling sizes a soakwell, worked through
Watermans Bay is in the City of Stirling, and the City requires all rain that falls within a lot to be held on that lot, by soakwells or another approved method. Its drainage criteria set a minimum design storm for standard lots and turn it into a simple formula.
Standard lots are designed for a 1 in 1 ARI 60 minute event, equal to 15 mm of rain. Impervious area in m2 multiplied by 0.015 m gives the soakwell capacity required in m3. The minimum soakwell for roof water is 900 mm in diameter by 600 mm deep.
Source: City of Stirling, On Site Stormwater Drainage Criteria (June 2024); Crossover Policy.
Take a rebuilt home with 160 m2 of roof plus 60 m2 of new driveway and paths. That is 220 m2 of hard surface, and 220 x 0.015 gives 3.3 m3 of storage. We then choose the number and size of units to suit the lot, and our soakwell cost page shows how volume affects the price. One more Stirling step catches people out on rebuilds: a Crossover Installation Application has to be lodged before a crossover is built or changed, and generally only one crossover is allowed per street frontage. The City of Stirling soakwell requirements page has the full detail.
Cliffs, reef and the old limestone track
The bay itself is framed by cliffs on land and reefs offshore, and early access to the area was along a limestone track. The ground under most homes is typically Quindalup sand and Tamala Limestone, which drains well but can turn up rock in a soakwell hole. A saltwater wedge sits under the coast. Most lots are likely within about 1 km of the ocean, so we specify exposure grade pavers and seal outdoor areas against salt.
The sand is easy to compact but it moves if it is left loose, so on a driveway we dig out the soft top layer, lay and compact a crushed limestone base in lifts, and screed a thin sand bed before the pavers go down. Edges get a concrete haunch so the outer row cannot creep sideways into the garden. Where an old shack footing or a buried limestone wall sits in the way, we break it out rather than pave over it, because a hard spot under one part of a driveway shows up later as a hump.
Star Swamp and the Mount Flora lookout
Star Swamp Bushland Reserve takes up just over half of Watermans Bay, and the City of Stirling closes it on high fire risk days. For houses on the bush edge we recommend a band of non combustible paving against the walls instead of mulch or timber decking. At the suburb's highest point stands the Mount Flora Regional Museum, a 1936 water tower that became a museum and lookout in 1986, and it is a good spot to see how close the reserve and the ocean sit to every street.
Next door to Watermans Bay
North Beach lies directly south and Marmion directly north, with Sorrento beyond it. Inland sit Carine and Hamersley. See areas we service for every suburb we cover from Landsdale.
