Sandstone and travertine care in Malabar

Malabar is a coastal suburb built around Long Bay, named after the steamer MV Malabar, wrecked on Miranda Point in 1931. To the north, Malabar Headland is on the State Heritage Register for its Second World War Malabar Battery, Aboriginal engravings and the Anzac Rifle Range. Large areas of the suburb are given over to Randwick Golf Course and the Long Bay Correctional Centre, also state-listed, on Anzac Parade. The Long Bay surf club's first clubhouse was built in 1922 off Bay Parade, and the Prince Edward Street shops serve the village. About 62 per cent of homes are separate houses. Stone appears as garden walls, steps and front fences, and as paving and pool surrounds on the houses facing the bay.

Long Bay is a deep, narrow inlet facing east, so ocean swell and onshore wind funnel straight into it. Homes around the bay and on the slopes above it take regular salt spray, and the stone shows it: a dull crust on terraces, fretting edges on sandstone walls, and pitting along travertine pool coping. Steep blocks shed rainwater across paving and down walls, carrying soil and leaving tide-marks. Heathland and coastal scrub around the headland and golf course drop seeds and leaves that stain paving. Where homes face south or sit in the lee of the headland, damp stays longer and algae and lichen take hold on steps and walls (inferred from setting).

Malabar is in Randwick City Council. Randwick lists Malabar Headland as one of its twenty-one heritage conservation areas, and the headland is also a State Heritage Register item, as is Long Bay Correctional Centre, which can bring Heritage Act approval requirements of their own. Most private homes in Malabar sit outside those areas, though a house can be scheduled on its own, and Randwick will tell you if yours is. Where a listing or area applies, the local plan's heritage clause makes most works subject to consent, while small upkeep jobs can be cleared by letter. Unit blocks and townhouses, around a quarter of homes, are strata schemes in which the owners corporation looks after shared fences, paths and pool areas and approves work on them.

Malabar is about 28 minutes from our Double Bay base, slightly past our usual Watsons Bay to Maroubra run, so nearby jobs are lined up for the same day. Streets around Long Bay are steep and some are narrow; a driveway or kerbside spot is sorted out at booking, and we carry equipment down terraced gardens where needed. On waterfront blocks we watch the forecast, since onshore wind is common and unsuitable for sealing. Pools are covered before any work, and each level of a sloping site has its own bund so rinse water is caught and vacuumed up. Our technicians keep run-off well away from the bay, where any stray wash water would go straight to the beach.