What landscape design and landscaping cost in Moreton Bay.
Coastal flats, new estates and hinterland acreage each price differently, so here is what moves the number and how to lower it.
A designed-and-built Moreton Bay garden commonly runs between $40,000 and $150,000 or more, while the design itself is a separate, usually fixed fee that starts from around $2,500 for a concept. A useful rule of thumb has a full garden renovation beginning around 15% of your property's value, depending on the features, access and drainage involved. The region covers a lot of ground, from the flat, breezy Redcliffe peninsula to the North Lakes estates and out to the acreage around Samford and Dayboro, and each of those pulls the build number in a different direction.
This is a general guide to how landscaping is priced across the bay and hinterland, not a set fee list. We are a Brisbane design studio (Shannon designs, independent contractors build), so here is the honest picture of where the money goes and the levers that bring it down: staging the work, doing the soft layer yourself, and settling the plan before the digging starts.
Coast, estate and hinterland: what moves the number
On the peninsula, the cost story is wind and water. Flat coastal blocks near the bay catch a steady onshore breeze that hardy planting and good screening have to stand up to, and the low-lying streets can sit close to the water table, so drainage becomes a real line item rather than an afterthought. The lowest coastal ground is council-mapped for acid sulfate soils in places, which can affect how deep you dig and how you handle spoil, so it is worth checking your block's mapping early rather than discovering it mid-build.
Inland, the North Lakes and Mango Hill estates hand over flat, compact blocks with easy access, which keeps structural costs down but starts you from bare ground. Out in the Samford and Dayboro hinterland it flips again to acreage: slope, long path and driveway runs, and machinery access, all of which add up. Knowing which of these three worlds your block sits in is the first step to a realistic budget.
Photo: Sheba_Also, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Get the drainage right, then save on the rest
On the low coastal blocks especially, drainage is the thing to spend on and never skimp, because water that has nowhere to go will undermine paving, rot timber and drown planting, and fixing it after the fact means lifting whatever you built on top. Hand that, along with retaining, structural hardscaping and anything electrical, to a contractor who does it properly the first time.
The soft layer is where you save. Planting out wind-tolerant beds, mulching, laying turf, setting up drip irrigation and adding screening and pots are all jobs a capable owner can take on over a few weekends. A plan makes that DIY work look designed rather than scattered, and on a windy bayside block the right screening plants earn their keep by making the whole garden more usable.
Stage it, and design the whole garden first
Few bay gardens need to be built in one go. Split the work by area, the entertaining zone, the street frontage, the screening, the productive corner, and build them a year or two apart as the budget allows. Staged off a plan, the result looks exactly like a garden that went in all at once.
The one condition is that the whole garden is designed up front, so drainage, levels and services are decided once and later stages sit on earlier ones rather than tearing them out, which matters more here than most places given how much rides on the drainage. Our guide to phasing a garden renovation sets out the order, and our Moreton Bay area page covers how we approach gardens across the region.
What the design costs, and travel to the bay
Most designers quote a fixed price per stage, which is easier to plan for than a percentage of a build that has not been priced yet. For a standard block a concept design usually starts around $2,500 and rises with complexity and the features you want built in, a pool, decking or serious drainage works. A concept plan on its own is often enough for owners who will build it themselves over time, while a complete concept and detailed design package for a standard residential project commonly runs about $5,000 to $10,000, with complex sites higher. Ask a designer to show you a portfolio and a sample document set before you commit, because what a design includes varies between studios. A considered design is worth more than it costs, since it gives your contractor or your own efforts a clear plan and spares you the expense of undoing work that was not thought through properly.
How much drafting has to happen before design starts also feeds the fee, since an accurate base plan is the foundation of the work, and depending on Moreton Bay City Council you can often request PDF copies of your property and house plans for free or a small fee, so it is worth sorting early. Our Design Discovery Consultation is $350 on-site within Brisbane metro; the northern bay and hinterland generally carry a modest travel surcharge on top, quoted up front when you book. For a stage-by-stage breakdown, our landscape design cost guide has the full detail.
