Underpinning in Figtree
Figtree is named in the state's soil-landscape reports for two units, one of which describes its soils as highly reactive, and a mapped heritage conservation area intersects the suburb. It is a reason to ask what is under your lot, not a finding about it.
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Underpinning around Figtree
We sampled the state's soil-landscape map at five points across Figtree and got four different units: the Illawarra Escarpment unit twice, and the Fairy Meadow, Gwynneville and Berkeley units once each. The Berkeley unit's report names Figtree, Cordeaux Heights and Farmborough Heights as examples of urban development on it, says its soils are highly reactive, and says indications of mass movement, slump and creep, are common. The Gwynneville report also names Figtree, but its own headline says reactive subsoils while its surface movement section says the soils vary from stable to slightly reactive.
One of five points fell on the Berkeley unit, the survey dates from 1990, and its scale is coarse, so none of this says your soil is reactive or that any house has moved. What it does say is that Figtree does not sit on one uniform kind of ground on the state's map. Two neighbours on different units could be asking different questions, and only an investigation of the lot settles which.
Permits and Wollongong City Council rules
The heritage map in Wollongong Local Environmental Plan 2009 includes a conservation area named the Illawarra Escarpment Landscape Area, and the state's planning layer shows a mapped area of that name intersecting Figtree. Clause 5.10 requires consent to alter the exterior of a building inside a heritage conservation area, unless the council has advised in writing beforehand that the work is minor or is maintenance and would not harm the area's heritage significance, and the state's exempt-development entry for repairing foundations does not apply there. Whether a footing repair alters a building's exterior is not something these documents say, and they do not say which Figtree houses lie inside the area. Ask the council about a given property.
Source: Wollongong Local Environmental Plan 2009 cl 5.10 and Schedule 5 Part 2 (version published 28 August 2026); NSW Planning Portal heritage layer; NSW soil-landscape reports, Berkeley and Gwynneville units; read 24 September 2026. — confirm current requirements with Wollongong City Council.
Our Figtree service area
An enquiry from Figtree is passed on to an independent provider, who gets in touch to look at the house.
See all Underpinning in Wollongong. We also work in Cordeaux Heights and Farmborough Heights, which the Berkeley report names as well.
Call (02) 9072 0403Last reviewed · Updated · First published