Water over the yard after rain, gutters that overflow, a wet wall, a line that has blocked: in Forster and Tuncurry we clear lines and camera them, reline or replace collapsed pipes, lay ag drains, regrade yards that hold water and put roof water where MidCoast Council's stormwater guidelines allow. Tell us what the water is doing and where.
Get a Quote →Drainage work covers surface stormwater — getting rain off roofs and paving away fast — and subsoil drainage, which stops groundwater sitting against footings underground. Forster-Tuncurry sits on a sand spit between Wallis Lake and the ocean, and much of the wider MidCoast area including Hallidays Point and Old Bar shares the same low-lying, sandy, high-water-table profile. That means water often has nowhere to drain to downward, and blocks near the lake system can see the water table rise noticeably after sustained rain or a run of high tides.
A proper fix usually starts with finding the actual legal point of discharge for the property (often a council stormwater main or an easement, not just next door's yard) and confirming existing pipework isn't silted, collapsed or root-affected before installing any new ag drain or regrading the site.
Stormwater pits, downpipe lines and yard drains cleared with jetting and camera inspection so you know the blockage is actually gone, not just moved along.
Perimeter ag drains installed to intercept groundwater on the sandy, lake-adjacent blocks common across Forster, Tuncurry and Hallidays Point.
Collapsed, cracked or silted stormwater pipe dug up and replaced, or relined without a full trench dig where access allows.
Low-lying yards near Wallis Lake or the Manning River that hold water after rain regraded and re-drained toward a legal discharge point.
A drainage job in Forster or Tuncurry is shaped by Council's rules as much as by the pipe. MidCoast Council's Site Stormwater Drainage Guidelines (February 2024) limit direct discharge to the kerb and gutter to 20 litres a second at any one outlet in the 20% AEP storm. Above that, Council may require a connection to its underground pipe and pit system, or on-site detention can be used to bring the flow down. Where a single house on a block that falls away from the street doesn't need on-site detention, the same guidelines set the disposal options in order, and a charged line to the kerb only qualifies with more than 1.0 m of head down to the kerb invert.
What is under the lawn counts too. Where the water sensitive design controls in Chapter 11 of the Great Lakes DCP apply, infiltrating raingardens are only allowed on sandy soil, and not where groundwater is within 700 mm of the surface. A house with 500 square metres or less of total roof area is exempt from those controls only outside the mapped Priority Areas, and the chapter includes a Tuncurry and Forster District Priority Area Map. Check with Council which DCP is in force before designing.
The Bureau of Meteorology's Forster-Tuncurry Marine Rescue station (060013), with records from 1896, shows a mean annual rainfall of 1220.3 mm, with March the wettest month. Ask how these rules apply to your block.
Covering Forster, Tuncurry, Pacific Palms, Hallidays Point, Old Bar and Taree, and the rest of the Great Lakes and Manning Valley in the MidCoast Council area. The Great Lakes DCP rules described on this site are the ones Council has applied to the former Great Lakes area, including Forster-Tuncurry. If your property is outside that area, check with MidCoast Council which development control plan covers it. Not sure whether your street is included? Send the enquiry anyway and say where the property is.
Tell us what you need and where the property is.