Fencing in the Sutherland Shire: What Local Homeowners Should Know

We are based in Miranda, so the Sutherland Shire is home ground for us. Fencing here has a few local characteristics that catch people out when they are comparing quotes, most of them to do with what is under the ground and how close you are to the water.

What Shire blocks do to a fencing job

Two things shape most fencing work across the Shire. The first is sandstone. Much of the area sits on rock shelf, sometimes only a few hundred millimetres down, and a post hole that hits rock takes far longer than one in soil. This is the most common reason two quotes for the same length of fence come back at very different prices: one has allowed for rock and the other has not.

The second is slope. A lot of Shire backyards fall away from the house, which means panels have to be stepped or raked along the boundary, and in some cases a low retaining wall has to go in before a fence can sit on the line at all. That is a separate scope of work and it belongs on the quote as its own item.

Closer to the coast around Cronulla and the Port Hacking foreshore, salt air also matters. It shortens the life of untreated timber and of cheap galvanised hardware, which is worth factoring into the choice of material rather than discovering later.

Fence types that work well here

• Colorbond, for rear and side boundaries where privacy and low maintenance are the priority, and where salt air rules out untreated timber.

• Timber paling and picket, for front boundaries in older streetscapes where a steel fence would look out of place.

• Aluminium and tubular, for pool surrounds and for front fences where you want an open outlook rather than a solid barrier.

• Retaining walls combined with fencing, for the sloping blocks that are common right across the Shire.

• Gates, including wide vehicle gates and self-closing pool gates.

If you are not sure which suits your boundary, our guide on how to choose the right fence for your Sydney property works through it.

Pool fencing in the Shire

Pools are common across the Shire, and pool barriers are the one area of fencing where getting the detail wrong has consequences beyond appearance. Barriers in NSW must comply with the requirements under the Swimming Pools Act and the relevant Australian Standard, covering minimum height, maximum gaps, the non-climbable zone around the barrier, and gates that are self-closing and self-latching. Boundary fences that double as part of a pool barrier have to meet those rules too, which is easy to overlook when you are replacing an old back fence beside a pool.

Sutherland Shire Council publishes its own guidance on pool barrier requirements and registration. It is worth reading before you commit to a design, not after.

Agreeing the fence with your neighbour

A fence on the boundary between two Shire properties is a dividing fence under the NSW Dividing Fences Act 1991, and the cost of a sufficient dividing fence is normally shared between the adjoining owners. The practical advice is the same everywhere: agree the type, height and cost split in writing before anything is ordered. Our Colorbond fencing guide covers this in more detail.

Where we work in the Shire

We fence across the whole of the Sutherland Shire, including Miranda, Caringbah, Cronulla, Sutherland, Gymea, Kirrawee, Sylvania, Jannali, Como, Oyster Bay, Menai, Engadine and the surrounding suburbs, and we also work through St George, Canterbury-Bankstown, the Inner West and the Eastern Suburbs.

Getting a local quote

A Cut Above Landscaping & Carpentry holds NSW Contractor Licence 484384C in structural landscaping. Because we are local, an onsite quote in the Shire is usually easy to arrange. You can see our full range of Sydney fencing services, or contact us for a free onsite quote.

Read next: just across the Georges River, our guide to fencing in the St George area covers Hurstville, Kogarah, Rockdale, Bexley and the bayside suburbs.

Also worth reading: Retaining Walls in Sydney, on sandstone, sloping blocks and what a retaining wall quote should actually tell you.