Sandstone care in Davidson

Davidson is named after Sir Walter Davidson, Governor of New South Wales from 1918 to 1923, and began life as a quarry site before residential development started in the late 1970s. It sits on the eastern edge of Garigal National Park and adjoins Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park, and almost every dwelling, over 98 per cent, is a separate house. The ground is uneven, with steep descents on Stone Parade, Borgnis Street and Maitland Street, and gentler slopes along Prahran and Kambora Avenues. McFarlane Reserve, Maitland Street Reserve, Aranda Place Reserve and Richard Healy Oval provide open space, and Kambora Public School serves the suburb. Sandstone appears in retaining walls, driveway borders, steps and paving.

Davidson's streets are lined with eucalypts and liquidambars, and both affect stone. Eucalypts shed leaves and bark through the year, while liquidambars drop a heavy load of leaves in autumn, and when either lies wet on paving it leaves brown tannin marks. Steep blocks need retaining walls, which hold damp soil and often show seepage and moss. Driveways that fall sharply from the street grow slippery algae in shaded sections. Properties next to the national park are shaded and damp in places, with black mould and lichen on walls and steps. The suburb has experienced bushfire threat, including the January 1994 fires in Garigal, and smoke and ash can mark exposed stone.

Davidson's planning framework is the Warringah LEP 2011, which Northern Beaches Council continues to apply across the former Warringah area. Because the houses date from the late 1970s onward, it is unsurprising that we found neither a conservation area nor any listed homes, though a quick check of Schedule 5 costs nothing before restoration work. Of more practical relevance, lots next to Garigal may sit on council's bush fire prone land map; that map governs new building and landscaping, not cleaning. Strata is rare here, as nearly every home is a freestanding house. Wherever we work, wash water is collected on site rather than allowed into street drains, since those carry stormwater straight into national park creeks.

Getting to Davidson from Double Bay usually takes 30 to 40 minutes, with the Roseville Bridge the main variable. Nearly every job is a house with a driveway, but the steep streets mean we check where our vehicle can be parked safely and whether equipment needs to be carried down to lower terraces. Our technicians clean steep driveways and stairs from the top down, with bunding at the bottom of each section so water is collected rather than running to the street. Autumn is a busy time for leaf stains, so we often recommend booking after the liquidambars have finished dropping. Sealing waits for dry stone and a dry forecast.