If your jetty, pontoon or boat ramp sits below the mean high water mark, it stands on Crown land — and NSW Crown Lands licences that occupation.
Get a Quote →NSW Crown Lands states it plainly: “You must hold a domestic waterfront licence for the use and occupation of Crown land below the mean high water mark for recreational infrastructure such as jetties, pontoons and boat ramps.”
The land under your jetty is not part of your title. Your title stops at the mean high water mark; everything past it belongs to the State, and the licence is the instrument that lets a private structure sit there. Most owners around the lake never think about it — until one of three things happens.
A new licence is needed before construction starts. Crown Lands asks for the completed application form and an approved development application — or a building information certificate — with stamped plans.
On sale the licence transfers automatically at settlement, for settlements after 1 July 2018. Then a clock starts. The buyer must notify the department and pay the transfer fee within 28 days of settlement. The buyer also takes on any amount owing on the licence, the ongoing rent, and the licence conditions. The transfer needs a set of recent photographs — the full specification is below, and it is more involved than most people expect.
Where a licence is being revoked and reissued, Crown Lands asks for the same photographs plus an identification survey by a registered surveyor. This is the pathway with the most work in it, and the letter carries a date.
This is the part that catches people out, because it cannot be done in one trip. Crown Lands asks for recent photographs showing the current structures and the area below the mean high water mark, taken so as to show:
High tide and low tide are hours apart, so this is two sessions on the same day, not one. “From offshore facing the property” means from a boat — which on Lake Macquarie is the photo most owners have no way to take. And the department is open about what the photos are for: it uses them “to determine the condition of the structures and confirm that no unauthorised works have been done”. So if a pile is visibly out of line or the decking has gone, that is what is being photographed, and it is going into a government file with a date on it.
Where a licence is revoked and a new one issued, which is also the path used when a property changes hands, Crown Lands asks for an identification survey as well. The specification is specific:
This is surveying work, not marine contracting. A jetty builder cannot produce it and should not offer to. If you have a survey already, check its date before you assume it counts — the two-year limit is the trap.
Issues, transfers, revokes and reissues the licence. Sets what must be supplied and the date it is due. Sends the invoice once processing begins. They are the only authority on your licence.
Produces the identification survey where one is required. Independent of the contractor doing any repair work.
Repairs or replaces what the photos are going to show — piles, decking, bracing, pontoon floats. Often the only party with a boat and the reason the offshore photo becomes possible at all.
Lodge the application, meet the date, and pay the invoice when it comes. Nobody can lodge it for you.
The photos are the last step, not the first. If the structure needs work, the order that saves a second round of photography is: get the repair done, then shoot high tide and low tide, then lodge. Doing it the other way round means submitting a dated record of a failed structure and photographing the whole frontage twice.
That matters more on Lake Macquarie than most places, because the offshore photo needs a boat and much of the lake’s 170 km of foreshore is easier to reach by water than from the land side. If a contractor is coming out anyway, that is the trip to plan around.
Where Crown Lands has written to you, the letter names both a date and a contact. If the date is not achievable — because a surveyor is booked out, or the repair cannot be done in time — that contact is the number to ring before the date passes, not after. We cannot speak for Crown Lands and we do not know what they will say in any given case. We only know that the number is on the letter and it is there to be used.
This page is a plain-English summary of publicly available requirements, written for Lake Macquarie waterfront owners. It is not legal advice and we are not connected with any government agency. Requirements change, and the department’s own pages are the authority on every point above:
NSW Crown Lands — domestic waterfront licence.
On crownland.nsw.gov.au, go to Licences, leases and permits, then Apply or manage a licence, then Apply for a domestic waterfront licence. Their Domestic Waterfront Licences Guidelines are linked from that page.
Or ring the Domestic Waterfront Licence Team on 1300 886 235, or email waterfront.tenures@crownland.nsw.gov.au. If you have a letter from them, quote the licence number on it.
Foreshore work may also need a development application through Lake Macquarie City Council, depending on what is being built or replaced. Check with Council before work starts.
Tell us what you need and where the property is.