What we look for in Orange Grove, and why it differs from the suburb next door. 17.5 km from the CBD, 23.9 km from the coast, postcode 6109.
Bickley Dam is not in Bickley. It sits within Orange Grove, constructed in 1921 on Bickley Brook, a tributary of the Canning River. That is worth knowing because living below a dam is a different proposition from living near a creek, and this is a very small suburb of around seven hundred people at the foot of the scarp.
Bickley Brook runs through the suburb and the dam sits above it. On the low brook flats that means a seasonal water table, ground that stays wet longer than the slopes above, and drainage that has to cope with what comes down the valley.
Where a property sits relative to the brook is the first thing to establish, and it matters more than most things about the building on it.
Scarp-foot ground shifts over short distances. Alluvial brook flats at the bottom, granite and laterite as the land rises. A single holding can span both, which means footing conditions vary within one property and cracking should be read with that in mind.
With only around seven hundred residents this is semi-rural country. Unsewered properties on septic or aerobic systems. Bore or tank water. Long private driveways. Sheds and outbuildings that form part of what is being bought.
The treed scarp-foot setting brings genuine bushfire exposure, so a BAL assessment needs checking against what a house actually is, and access along a long driveway is a practical question.
Brook flats hold moisture year round, and moisture is the single condition a subterranean colony cannot do without. The low ground here carries meaningfully more pressure than the rising land above it.
Riparian vegetation along the watercourse holds established colonies, and it is retained rather than cleared.
On rural holdings the exposure spreads across the whole site rather than sitting at a house perimeter. Sheds on soil. Fence posts driven into damp ground. Stacked timber. Old orchard remnants on parcels with that history.
Effluent systems keep a patch permanently damp near the house, and on rising ground that moisture travels.
Subfloor access on a semi-rural block varies and we report what we reached.
The brook decides most of what matters on a property here, and one look at how a block relates to it informs both reports. Sending two people to make the same observation on separate days would be an odd way to run it. Reported under AS 4349.1 and AS 4349.3.
Look at low-lying land in winter if the timing allows. Below a dam on a brook flat, that is the version of the property you will own.
Buyers want the bore, the treatment system and the outbuildings assessed as specific items, since none is covered by an inspection of the dwelling. On treed blocks, bushfire compliance is worth considering alongside the inspection, since the same boundary carries fire risk and pest pressure at once, and neither of them is going away.
Orange Grove sits on the Guildford Formation — alluvial clay and sandy clay laid down by the Swan and Canning systems. This is the reactive ground. Clay here shrinks and swells with moisture, which is what puts stepped cracking through brickwork and takes doors out of square between seasons. Articulation joints matter on these sites, and a great many older houses do not have them where a current standard would want them.
What that means in practice, on a house in Orange Grove:
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.
Wattle Grove, Kenwick and Forrestfield sit on the same ground as Orange Grove, 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.
Lesmurdie is 2.5 km away but sits on the laterite foothills of the Darling Scarp; Maddington is 4.1 km away but sits on the Bassendean dune system; Carmel is 5.1 km away but sits on the laterite foothills of the Darling Scarp. 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.
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Flat fee, the same in Orange Grove 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 23.9 km from the coast, out in Gosnells, Orange Grove 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 Orange Grove →
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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 23.9 km inland, Orange Grove 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