What we look for in Burswood, and why it differs from the suburb next door. 3.6 km from the CBD, 12.3 km from the coast, postcode 6100.
Burswood has a ground history unlike anywhere else in Perth, and all of it matters. Twenty two acres were reclaimed between 1906 and 1922 to build filtration beds for sewage syphoned from Claisebrook. A cement works opened in 1921, using shells dredged from the river floor for lime. And the area was used for waste disposal, with domestic garbage dumped there until 1972.
Reclaimed land. Former sewage beds. A cement works. A landfill that operated into the 1970s. That is four separate industrial land uses on one peninsula, and the site history of a particular parcel is a fair and specific question rather than an awkward one.
Ask for it. The records exist, remediation on redeveloped land of this kind is documented, and a buyer is entitled to know what a building is standing on.
Contemporary Burswood is dominated by apartment towers beside the river and the entertainment precinct, so most inspections here are strata. Concrete structure. Waterproofing membranes. Facades and balconies. And the scheme's spending record, which reaches every owner through levies whatever lot a defect sits in.
The river wraps three sides of the suburb, so low parcels carry a high water table, and river edge retaining and foreshore structures come with some properties.
Perth Stadium, Crown, the racecourse and the tennis centre are all here. Event traffic and crowds are periodic and permanent, and worth experiencing on an event day rather than a quiet Tuesday.
In a tower above the ground floor, termite exposure is negligible and saying otherwise would be inventing a concern.
The risk sits at ground level. Podium gardens above occupied space stay wet by design. Courtyard planters hold soil against walls. Landscaped forecourts are maintained by contractors rather than residents, so nobody living in the building is watching a wall base.
Made ground is the other consideration. Fill on a site with this history can contain almost anything, including buried timber, and fill that holds moisture beside a river is where a colony would establish if anything is going to.
In a scheme, termite management is generally a body corporate responsibility. Ask what exists and when anyone last looked.
For a ground floor or podium lot the same landscaping and slab edge concern both reports, and higher up one set of building access arrangements serves each. Reported under AS 4349.1 and AS 4349.3.
Read the strata minutes before the contract. In a tower, the scheme's spending history tells you more about the next decade than an hour walking through an apartment will.
New development around the precinct brings handover inspections and the follow up before builder liability closes. We also prepare reports where water ingress in a high rise has become a dispute. In buildings of this height that is a recurring theme, and it usually starts at a balcony.
On a ground floor lot, ask what the podium planting sits above. Soil held permanently against structure is a waterproofing question before it is a pest one.
Burswood sits on the Bassendean dune system — deep leached grey quartz sand, almost pure, and very free draining. Bassendean sand is about as unreactive as a building site gets, so seasonal footing movement is rarely the story here. The water table is the story. Parts of this system sit over the Gnangara Mound and the standing water level can be within a couple of metres of the surface.
What that means in practice, on a house in Burswood:
Landform is assigned from the suburb's position on the Swan Coastal Plain rather than from a site soil test. It tells you what to expect, not what you have. A site classification to AS 2870 is a different exercise and a different report.
Belmont Park and State Tennis Centre are the fixed points in Burswood. They matter to an inspection for an unromantic reason: they date the surrounding stock. The decade that built them is usually the decade that built the houses around them, and that decade decides what is in the roof, what is in the walls, and what the wiring looks like.
Lathlain, Victoria Park, East Perth, Kensington and Carlisle sit on the same ground as Burswood, so the footing behaviour and the drainage problems tend to repeat across all of them. If you are comparing houses across those suburbs, you are largely comparing the same site conditions.
Rivervale is 2.2 km away but sits on the Guildford Formation. That is the useful thing about this part of Perth: the ground can change inside a few kilometres, and with it what an inspection is looking for.
On site classification: any soil zone quoted for a suburb is indicative, inferred from geography rather than surveyed. A real AS 2870 classification comes from geotechnical work on your actual block and can differ from the one next door. We report what we observe; we do not read your soil class off a map.
The inspection is visual and non-invasive, over the readily accessible areas, reported to AS 4349.1. Our inspectors physically enter the roof space, as long as there is sufficient access. Report within 24 hours of the inspection.
MISSING: phone number · Book an inspection in Burswood →
Flat fee, the same in Burswood as anywhere: $440 inc. GST for a pre-purchase building inspection, or $616 inc. GST with the timber pest scope added in the same visit. Full price list →
Well inland at 12.3 km from the coast, out in Belmont - Victoria Park, Burswood is far enough from the water that salt takes a back seat. The same fee goes into footings, drainage and the ground movement typical inland, and the tiled roof is checked for delignification only near heavy traffic.
Pre-purchase building inspection in Burswood →
Building and pest inspection in Burswood →
Yes. Our inspectors physically enter and inspect the roof space, as long as there is sufficient access to do so safely. Where access is restricted, the report says so plainly rather than implying we saw more than we did.
At 12.3 km inland, Burswood carries lower coastal-salt exposure, so delignification is not the first thing we would expect. It remains possible near heavy arterial corridors or industrial emissions.
Within 24 hours of the inspection itself, not 24 hours from booking. On a pre-purchase or pre-settlement job that timing is the whole point, because your leverage disappears once you are committed.
We would rather you checked than took our word for it. These are the bodies that actually hold the records and set the rules:
Tell us about the property and what you need. We'll come back to you with a firm quote and a time.
PERTH