For plumbers, drainers and gasfitters across the Hastings, from Port Macquarie and Lake Cathie to Wauchope and the Camden Haven. Your customers skew older than most of NSW, the western estates keep builders busy, and the hinterland runs on septic. A good site speaks to all three, with your licence and phone number easy to find on every page.
A plumber in Port Macquarie might start the day on a retiree's hot water unit in Lake Cathie, quote a drain relocation for an extension in Port's older streets, fit off a new house in Thrumster and finish on a septic system out past Wauchope. The site should show each of those customers that their job is one you do.
The median age in the Port Macquarie-Hastings council area was 49 at the 2021 Census, against 39 for NSW. Plenty of your customers would rather talk than type, so we put the phone number in large text at the top of every page, keep the type size generous and the contrast strong, and keep the quote form short for those who'd still rather write.
Installing or altering a system needs council approval, applied for through the NSW Planning Portal with a geotechnical wastewater report, and a buyer has three months from transfer to apply for approval to operate. Council recommends a pre-purchase inspection because ordinary building inspections don't cover on-site systems. If you install, repair or inspect them, give that work its own section.
Thrumster, Sancrox and Fernbank Creek are the western growth areas council is planning a new wastewater treatment plant to serve. If you do rough-ins and fit-offs for builders, a page or section listing the estates, the stages you handle and how you deal with callbacks speaks directly to them.
Council asks for extra protection when anyone builds over or near asbestos cement or vitrified clay sewer mains, may require the main to be replaced or relined, and won't allow building over large mains. Raising or lowering a manhole cover needs its own application. If you help renovators through that, or reline pipes, say so on the renovations page.
Town water comes from the Hastings River and two dams, and in December 2019, with little chance to take water from the river, council was forecasting Level 4 restrictions within 74 days. Leak detection, rainwater tanks with pumps, and water-efficient tapware and toilets deserve a heading of their own, ready to move up the home page when the next dry spell arrives.
In March 2021 the Hastings and the Camden Haven rivers both flooded, and homes in Kendall, Kew, Dunbogan, North Haven and parts of Laurieton were expected to flood. If you check and repair water and sewer connections after a flood, write that section in dry weather, with a form that takes photos.
Licensing works as it does across NSW: a licence for plumbing, draining or gasfitting work of any value, a contractor licence to contract for it, and Fair Trading's advertising guidance asking for the licensee's name, licence number, category of work and a business phone, websites included. Our Sydney plumbers page goes through it. Locally, Port Macquarie-Hastings Council sets the plumbing and drainage inspection requirements as the area's plumbing regulator, and it is also the Water Supply Authority under the Water Management Act 2000. Developments that touch its water and sewer go through a Section 306 Notice of Requirements and finish with a Section 307 Certificate of Compliance, and council's page also covers properties with pressure sewer units, where changes need the same Section 306 application.
Reticulated water comes from the Hastings River and from Cowarra Dam, which holds up to 10,000 megalitres, and Port Macquarie Dam, which holds 2,500. In December 2019, after twelve months of very low catchment inflows, council had little chance to take water from the river and was relying on storage, with Level 4 restrictions (triggered at 35% capacity) forecast within 74 days and emergency restrictions within 137. Its answer is the Cowarra Water Supply Scheme: a treatment plant able to handle 42 megalitres a day, a clear water reservoir and a 20.5 km trunk main to Sancrox, Thrumster, Port Macquarie, Lake Cathie, Bonny Hills and the Camden Haven. State and Commonwealth approvals are in place, work was expected to begin in 2026, and completion is estimated for 2029. Council projects the population rising from 92,650 in 2025 to 119,027 by 2050.
Sewage is the other half of that growth. The Thrumster Wastewater Scheme is a new treatment plant with a recycled water plant, new sewer mains and pump stations to serve Thrumster, Sancrox and Fernbank Creek in the west of Port Macquarie. It's designed for 40,000 people and could be expanded to 80,000, the planning minister granted the environmental impact statement determination on 11 June 2026, and work was expected to begin in 2026. New houses in those estates mean rough-ins, fit-offs and final inspections for plumbers working with builders.
Outside the sewered towns, properties rely on septic tanks, aerated systems and other on-site treatment, and council applications show systems being installed or upgraded at places like Lake Innes, Sancrox, Frazers Creek and Rawdon Island. Owners pay an annual management fee with their rates, and council's environmental health officers inspect once an approval to operate is applied for. Floods are the other recurring job. On Saturday 20 March 2021 the Hastings peaked at 12.1 metres at Kindee Bridge, above its 2013 record, floodwater reached Short and Clarence streets in the town centre, and residents in low-lying Wauchope and Settlement Point were told to relocate.
The council area covers 3,686 square kilometres: Port Macquarie with Lake Innes, Thrumster and Sancrox; Wauchope; Lake Cathie and Bonny Hills; the Camden Haven towns of Laurieton, North Haven, Dunbogan, Camden Head, Kendall and Kew; and inland places such as Telegraph Point, Comboyne, Long Flat and Herons Creek. Kempsey and MidCoast councils, to the north and south, set their own inspection requirements. We're an Adelaide team on Hutt St and work with regional NSW businesses by phone and email; you send your licence details, services and photos, we send back a draft link, and you pay once you approve it.
We haven't built for a Hastings business yet. M.J. Debney Plumbing & Gas in Queensland is our plumbing client, and Golden Years Aged Care Support in Adelaide shows how we build for older readers: large text, plain layout and a phone number on every page.
A Queensland plumber and gas fitter whose one-page site lays out six services, among them hot water, gas, drainage and backflow, with a 13-photo gallery that swipes on a phone, testimonials from customers, a protected contact form and tap-to-call.
Visit the M.J. Debney site (opens in a new tab) See it in our portfolio
In-home support for older people across Northern Adelaide. Six pages, nine services explained on one of them, a founder's about page, an enquiry form with a referral option for aged care providers, large readable text and tap-to-call on every page.
Visit the Golden Years Aged Care site (opens in a new tab) See it in our portfolio
“He listened to my feedback and made no hesitations to revise and adjust my website until we were completely happy with it.”
★ 5.0 from 33 Google reviews (opens in a new tab)
See all 14 recent client sites in our portfolio.
Enough for most Hastings sole traders
$399
Services, licence details, the towns you cover from Lake Cathie to Wauchope, a septic section, job photos, a short quote form and a large tap-to-call number, on one page.
$899
A home page, a builders' page for Thrumster, Sancrox and the other new estates, and a page for septic, tanks and rural work.
$1,499
For a business with a few vans: a home page plus pages for hot water and gas, drains and leak detection, septic, flood repairs and new homes, and one for the Camden Haven towns.
Yes. We're a web design team based in Adelaide, South Australia, working with businesses Australia-wide by phone and email, and our current clients are in SA, NSW, VIC and QLD. You send your details and photos, we build a draft you can look over on your phone, you ask for changes, and you pay once you approve it. We reply within 24 hours.
Make the phone number the first thing they see, in large type, and keep it there as they scroll. Use plain headings, a generous text size, strong contrast and a short form. It's how we built the Golden Years Aged Care Support site, and it suits anyone reading on a phone in bright light too.
A sentence or two, if you work on septic and treatment systems. Buyers have three months from transfer to apply for council's approval to operate, and council suggests a pre-purchase inspection, so people search for a plumber at exactly that point. Say which systems you work on and which areas you'll drive to.
Not on a small site. A clear list grouped by area (Port Macquarie and the western estates, Lake Cathie and Bonny Hills, the Camden Haven, Wauchope and inland) does the job. If you get a lot of work in one of them, the 8-page package has room for a page each.
If you take on flood repairs, yes. A flood like March 2021 leaves owners in the river towns with plumbing to check and repair, and a section written beforehand is ready the day they search. If it's not work you do, we leave it off.
Send us your licence details, the towns you cover between Telegraph Point and Kendall, and whether builders, septic or water-saving work make up most of your jobs. We'll quote first and build the draft before you pay anything.
We reply within 24 hours. Prefer email? info@webcraftstudio.com.au