Landscaping cost: what each job costs

Most backyard landscaping we build in Newcastle and Lake Macquarie costs between $15,000 and $60,000, and most front yards between $8,000 and $30,000. Where your yard lands in that range comes down to how much of the job is structural. Retaining walls, paving, decks and pergolas cost the most per square metre. Turf and planting cost the least. Slope, access and drainage decide the rest.

Those figures are a guide from our own jobs, not a quote. Below is what each part of a garden costs, why two yards of the same size can be priced very differently, and what a fair quote should show you before you sign anything.

What does landscaping cost, job by job?

These are the rates we see on our own jobs across Newcastle and Lake Macquarie in 2026. Each is installed, with the base work underneath, not just the materials.

Work	Typical cost
Sandstone block retaining wall, 600mm high, with drainage	$450 to $650 a linear metre
Timber sleeper retaining wall	$250 to $400 a linear metre
Engineered wall, over 600mm	from about $750 a linear metre, plus engineering and approval fees
Concrete pavers, laid	from about $110 a square metre
Natural stone or porcelain paving	$160 to $260 a square metre
Natural turf, laid with soil preparation	$35 to $55 a square metre
Synthetic turf	$90 to $140 a square metre
Garden beds, planted	$80 to $150 a square metre
Hardwood deck	$650 to $950 a square metre
Timber pergola, 3 x 4 metres	from about $9,000

Prices are a guide, + GST, installed and cleaned up.

You can rough out your own garden with this table. Say a flat backyard needs 60 square metres of new turf, 20 square metres of planted beds and a 15 square metre paved area in concrete pavers. At the rates above that is roughly $2,100 to $3,300 for turf, $1,600 to $3,000 for beds and about $1,650 for paving, before any drainage, edging, removal of old material or clean-up. Add a 12 metre sandstone wall to level a slope and you add $5,400 to $7,800, for about $10,750 to $15,750 in all. That is the bottom of the range. A steeper yard is what carries it toward the top. Swap the sandstone wall for 20 metres of engineered wall at about $750 a metre ($15,000 plus engineering and approval fees), then add a 25 square metre hardwood deck ($16,250 to $23,750) and a 3 by 4 metre pergola (about $9,000). With the same turf, beds and paving, that comes to about $45,600 to $55,700, and the fees, drainage and removal of old material take it to around $60,000.

Why do two yards the same size cost so differently?

Because the size of the yard matters less than what is under it and around it. These are the things that move a price most on our jobs.

Slope. A flat block can go straight to turf and paving. A sloping block needs walls to make level ground first, and walls are the most expensive thing in most gardens. A steep block in Wallsend or Cameron Park can need two or three walls before a single plant goes in.

Height of the walls. In NSW, a retaining wall up to 600mm can be exempt development if it meets the Codes SEPP conditions, including sitting at least 1m from each boundary and having drainage connected to your stormwater. Above that you need a complying development certificate or a development application and an engineer's design, which adds fees and time. Two low walls are often cheaper than one tall one. Our retaining wall cost guide prices each type per metre, and our page on retaining walls in Newcastle explains how we build and drain them.

Soil and drainage. The western suburbs of Newcastle and much of Lake Macquarie sit on heavy clay that holds water. If your yard ponds after a storm, that has to be fixed with ag pipes, strip drains or regrading before any lawn goes down, or the new turf drowns. Sandy coastal soil drains well but needs improving before beds and lawns will hold moisture.

Access. If a small excavator and a loaded wheelbarrow can get down the side of the house, the job moves quickly. If every block, bag of mix and tonne of soil has to be carried through the house or up a flight of stairs, labour goes up.

What has to come out first. Old concrete, a collapsing sleeper wall, tree stumps and builder's rubble all cost money to remove and dispose of. On older blocks we sometimes find buried slabs or old paths. A good quote says what happens if that turns up.

Materials. Natural sandstone and porcelain cost more than concrete pavers, and hardwood costs more than treated pine. They also last longer and look better as they age, so price them over the life of the garden, not just the day they're laid.

Where does the money go in a typical backyard?

On most of our jobs the structural work takes the biggest share: walls, paving, steps, decks and the drainage that sits behind and under all of it. Planting, turf and mulch are usually the smaller share, even though they are what you notice first when the job is done.

That is worth knowing when you set a budget. If you have $25,000 and a sloping yard, you may find that a good wall, a paved area and drainage use most of it, and the planting is simpler than you first pictured. If your block is flat, the same money goes much further on paving, a deck or a native planting plan.

How can you get more garden for your budget?

Do the hard work first and the soft work later. Walls, drainage, paving and the pipes under them are hard to add once a garden is planted. Turf and plants can go in next season without digging anything up.

Step a slope instead of walling it. Two or three lower walls with beds between them often cost less than one tall engineered wall and give you more usable flat space. Each can skip approval only if it's 600mm or lower and at least 2m horizontally from the next wall, so stepping needs room from the top of the slope to the bottom.

Keep what's good. A healthy tree, a solid old sandstone edge or a path that's in the right place can stay. We would rather build around them than replace them.

Pick turf for where it's going. Real turf is cheaper to lay and right for a sunny family lawn. Synthetic turf costs more up front but suits deep shade, small courtyards and spots where grass has never grown. Our page on turf and synthetic turf in Newcastle covers both.

Choose the paver for the job. Concrete pavers start at about $110 a square metre laid and look good for decades. Save natural stone or porcelain for the area people see and use most, like the patio beside the back door, and use pavers for side paths. Our page on paving in Newcastle covers the options.

What should a landscaping quote include?

A quote you can compare should list each part of the job separately: the length, height and material of any wall, the area and type of paving, the square metres of turf and beds, and the drainage, including where the water ends up. It should also show removal of old material, any engineering and approval fees, the clean-up, and a start date and a finish date.

Ask these questions before you sign:

• Is the price fixed? What happens if something unexpected turns up in the ground?
• What's your contractor licence number? In NSW, structural landscaping over $5,000, such as walls, paving, decks and pergolas, needs a contractor licence from NSW Fair Trading, and you can check a licence online in a minute.
• Is there a written contract? For licensed home building work over $5,000 in NSW, there must be, and the deposit cannot be more than 10 per cent of the price.
• What warranty comes with the work? Under the NSW Home Building Act, home building work carries statutory warranties: 6 years for major defects and 2 years for all other defects, counted from when the work is finished.
• Is my block in a mine subsidence district? Large parts of Newcastle and Lake Macquarie are. Work that needs council approval there may also need approval from Subsidence Advisory NSW, which can add time.
• Who does the work? Your own crew, or subcontractors you've never met?

Do you pay for the design separately?

Some landscapers and designers charge a design fee before any building starts, and for a large or complicated garden that can be money well spent. With us, the site visit is free and the drawing is included in the quote for a garden we build. You see what the yard will look like and what each part costs before you commit to anything.

Get a price for your yard

The ranges above will tell you roughly where your garden sits. A site visit tells you exactly, because it is the slope, the soil and the access that set the final number. We cover Newcastle and Lake Macquarie from our yard in Broadmeadow; our pages on landscaping in Newcastle and landscaping in Lake Macquarie show the kinds of jobs we do on each side of the lake. When you're ready, book a free site visit and we'll walk the block with you and send a fixed, itemised quote.