Some jetty work on Lake Macquarie needs no approval at all. Some needs a certificate. Some needs a full application — and one step before that which most people find out about too late.
Get a Quote →NSW sorts work on an existing jetty into three tiers. The sorting question is not how big the job is — it is whether the work touches a structural part, and whether it changes the footprint or height. Replacing every board on a jetty can be the lowest tier. Replacing one pile is not.
Repairs and replacement of decking, handrails, ladders and other non-load-bearing parts, like for like. Painting and protective coatings. Low lighting and service pedestals. Done properly, this needs no consent from Council and no consent from Crown Lands.
Structural repairs and replacing damaged or degraded piles can be done as complying development. That needs a complying development certificate from an accredited certifier or Council, to Australian Standards, with silt curtains in the water. Crown Lands consent to lodge comes first.
Anything that changes the footprint or height — a new jetty, extending one, changing a straight end to a T, adding steps. A DA through Lake Macquarie City Council, assessed against the controls further down this page. Crown Lands consent to lodge comes first.
The NSW Codes SEPP lets you carry out “minor alterations, repairs and maintenance to existing boatsheds, jetties, marinas, pontoons, water recreation structures and wharf or boating facilities as exempt development”, including:
And the line that turns a repair into something else. Exempt work must not:
Their fact sheet for licence holders lists what is not a repair: works that “enlarge the footprint,” “change the height,” or “are done on a structural part of an existing building or structure (for example, a bearer, joist or pylon).” For genuine repairs meeting all of that, “you do not need to get consent from the department as the landowner.” A pile is a pylon. Replacing one is Tier 2.
The same state rules say complying development “allows you to do certain structural repairs, to replace elements” and that “you can also replace damaged or degraded piles as complying development.” On top of every Tier 1 standard, the work must:
A complying development certificate is issued by an accredited certifier or by Council — it is a certificate, not an assessment, and it is quicker than a DA because the standards are fixed in advance. It still needs plans. And because the structure sits on Crown land, Crown Lands' consent to lodge is required before the certificate application goes in.
Your jetty stands on Crown land. Crown Lands is the landowner, and a landowner has to consent before anyone lodges a planning application over their land. Their own form puts it in one sentence:
The same applies to complying development certificate applications. So the order is: prepare the whole application → send it to Crown Lands with their fee → get consent to lodge → then lodge with Council or a certifier. Not the other way round.
Crown Lands' checklist for that consent asks for, among other things:
If you are also dealing with a licence renewal or transfer, the same survey serves both — the photo and survey specification is on our waterfront licence page.
NSW has been publishing Domestic Waterfront Structure Strategies for some estuaries — pre-assessed areas where the Fisheries and Maritime steps can be skipped. We checked the NSW Marine Estate's own status table on 7 September 2026: Lake Macquarie is listed as underway, not complete. In its words, the department is “consolidating feedback to move towards publishing” the Lake Macquarie strategy. Until it is published, the full path applies here.
Lake Macquarie City Council's Development Control Plan 2014 sets the controls a jetty DA is assessed against, in the chapter Council publishes as 9.7 Foreshore and Waterway Development. These are the ones that decide whether a design is approvable at all — read them before paying anyone to draw plans. Quoted from Revision 38, adopted 11 November 2024, which is the file linked from Council's own Development Control Plan page when we read it on 7 September 2026. The jetty controls are numbered within §7.2 of that chapter.
The same chapter sets limits for the other domestic structures: a boat launching ramp must achieve a depth of at least −600 mm (§7.3); a slipway must achieve a minimum depth of at least −600 mm AHD, with its length the lesser of the jetty it is used in conjunction with, or the length rules applying to that jetty (§7.4); and a boat shed must be no taller than 3 metres with a skillion roof or 3.5 metres with a gable or hip roof, no greater than 36 square metres, with the side fronting the Lake no more than 4 metres wide, no habitable rooms, washing or cooking facilities or entertaining areas — though a shower and toilet are allowed, and the roof must not be used as a sundeck, entertainment area or patio (§7.1).
The chapter also carries Table 1, which lists Locations Where Not Favoured for each development type beside an Except Where column. For domestic jetties, boat ramps, slipways, boat sheds and pontoons, the not-favoured locations are:
One entry in the Except Where column runs the other way, and it is worth knowing if you are up a creek rather than on the open lake: in tidal tributaries, where the overall dimension of the domestic landing platform or pontoon does not exceed 2.4 metres by 2.4 metres.
For DCP purposes, mean high water on the Lake is determined as +0.132 metres on the Australian Height Datum (AHD).
The same table has a separate Dredging row, and that is where land marked red on the Domestic Waterfront Structures Land Owner's Consent Strategy for the Lake Macquarie estuary appears — along with navigation channels, tidal tributaries and prominent headlands. Those are constraints on dredging, not on jetties. Read across the row that matches what you are actually proposing.
Everything else can be redrawn. Water depth cannot. If the bed at your frontage is too shallow, or the seagrass too close, the DCP says a jetty is not appropriate there — and no amount of plan-drawing changes that. A contractor who works the lake will usually know the answer for your shore before anything is lodged.
Crown Lands' fact sheet for licence holders is direct about it. If you “go ahead and do works without getting consent from the department where required, the department or your local council will take enforcement action against you,” which “may include cancelling your licence, or directing you in writing to remove the building or structure or works that were done without approval.”
Two further points from the same document. Some licences carry conditions that restrict structural work or replacement on a particular structure, or require removal by a date — check your licence before planning anything, because where such a condition exists the department will not consent to restoring or altering it. And altering a reserve-front structure — one separated from your property by a reserve or road — is not permitted in any circumstances.
Landowner. Consents to lodgement of a DA or certificate application. Issues and enforces the waterfront licence.
Assesses DAs against DCP Part 9. Can issue complying development certificates. Enforces alongside Crown Lands.
Marine vegetation, fish passage, and the bed of the waterway. Written support is on Crown Lands' checklist; approvals under the Fisheries Management Act may be needed even for exempt work.
Navigation. Written support or approval is on the checklist; the exposed-pile rule exists because of them.
Does the work to the standards above, with silt curtains where piles move. Some also prepare and lodge the paperwork — ask before assuming.
Own the licence, sign the applications, pay the fees, and carry the consequences if any step is skipped.
This page is a plain-English summary for Lake Macquarie waterfront owners, written in September 2026 from the documents below. It is not legal or planning advice, we are not connected with any authority, and requirements change — Council has since exhibited updated foreshore guidelines for residents, so confirm the current version before relying on a number here.
Lake Macquarie City Council — Development Control Plan 2014, chapter 9.7 Foreshore and Waterway Development, §7.2 Jetties, Pontoons and Landing Platforms. Revision 38, adopted 11 November 2024, read 7 September 2026.
NSW Department of Planning — Waterway structures: rules for exempt and complying development (Codes SEPP 2008), and the Planning Portal's waterway structures page.
NSW Crown Lands — Repairing, replacing or altering an existing domestic waterfront structure: information for licence holders; and the Landowner's consent for domestic waterfront structures application and checklist.
Transport for NSW — Repairs and maintenance of structures.
NSW DPI Fisheries — activities requiring a permit.
How to find these yourself.
On lakemac.com.au, go to Development, then Planning controls and development guidelines, then Local Planning Controls, then Lake Macquarie Development Control Plan. Under the Specific Land Uses (Part 9) heading, open 9.7 Foreshore and Waterway Development.
On planningportal.nsw.gov.au, search waterway structures for the exempt and complying development rules.
On crownland.nsw.gov.au, go to Licences, leases and permits, then Apply or manage a licence, then Apply for a domestic waterfront licence.
Tell us what you need and where the property is.