Pressure washing and house washing in Watanobbi

Where does wash water end up in a suburb ringed by wetland?

The name is not Aboriginal, the Geographic Names Board found, despite an old council claim that it meant hills surrounded by water; it may come from the Japanese surname Watanabe or from a remark about the nobby shape of the land. Paddocks of horses and grazing stock made way for a community centre, dirt roads once used for two stages of the Watagan Stages car rally are now lined with houses, and the suburb was home to what was billed as the largest home show outside Sydney, with offices for builders including Masterton Homes and AVJennings.

In the 2021 count, separate houses were 86.8% of the occupied stock and one dwelling in ten was semi-detached or a townhouse, while 41.2% of all homes were rented.

With wetland on nearly every side, runoff is the main thing to manage. The NSW EPA bars washing runoff from stormwater drains, since drains reach creeks and lakes with no treatment, and here that means Porters Creek and then Tuggerah Lake. Driveway and path pressure washing is matched to the surface, and the council's water rules permit it where moss or mould is the reason.

Key figures

86.8%

of occupied homes were separate houses

1,550

private dwellings in 2021

41.2%

of homes were rented

Sources

• Wikipedia, Watanobbi
• ABS 2021 Census QuickStats, Watanobbi
• NSW EPA, The drain is just for rain
• Central Coast Council (Love Water), Water Wise Rules
• NSW Spatial Services, Administrative Boundaries (postcode, council, distance, neighbours)