Upfront pricing. Call 0401 427 270

0401 427 270 Book Now
Cremorne Point NSW 2090, North Sydney Council

Electrician Cremorne Point

Four homes in five here are apartments, the harbour is on both sides of you, and half the peninsula falls away down steps. We work on the blocks, the boatsheds and the handful of houses in between, and we scope the access before we quote.

Call us on 0401 427 270 Request a quote
Strata specialists Level 2 accredited Upfront pricing
Rated 5 stars on Google
30+Years on the tools
4 in 5Homes here are flats
7am–5pmEvery day, Mon to Sun

Get a fast quote

Pricing agreed before we start. We usually reply the same day.

Prefer to talk it through? Call 0401 427 270.

  • Licensed 387609CFully insured
  • AS/NZS 3000Compliant workmanship
  • 5 star ratedOn Google reviews
  • Upfront pricingAgreed before we start
  • Same day serviceCall before 11am
Local knowledge

Cremorne Point is a strata suburb with a saltwater problem

The numbers here are unlike anywhere else we work. At the 2021 Census, 79.9 per cent of Cremorne Point homes were flats or apartments and only 13.6 per cent were separate houses, across roughly 1,045 occupied dwellings on a peninsula barely a kilometre long. So the honest starting point is that most electrical work here is either inside somebody’s apartment or on common property, and the two have completely different rules about who can authorise what.

The building stock reflects two waves. Interwar flats went up when Cremorne Point was still partly a guesthouse destination, and a second wave arrived with the apartment boom from the 1960s. Both were designed around an electrical load that no longer exists: no air conditioning, no induction cooking, no home offices, and certainly no cars to charge. The wiring inside individual lots has usually been touched since. The rising mains and the main switchroom often have not.

Then there is the water. Shell Cove sits on one side of the peninsula and Mosman Bay on the other, and a great many properties are within sight and salt-spray of both. Corrosion is not a theoretical risk here, it is the default failure mode for anything mounted outdoors.

And the terrain does the rest. The point is a steep sandstone finger. Blocks fall away hard from the ridge, plenty of addresses are reached down a flight of steps rather than a driveway, and Milson Road is the spine everything hangs off. None of that is difficult if you know before you arrive. It is very difficult if you find out on the day.

On the ground

Six things about Cremorne Point that change the job

These are the things we plan around here. If your quote does not account for at least the access and the salt, it was written from a map.

Most jobs here are strata jobs

With four homes in five being apartments, the first question is almost never technical. It is where the lot boundary sits. Work inside your own walls is generally yours to arrange; the switchroom, rising mains, stairwell and car park lighting, intercom and anything on an external wall belong to the owners corporation.

We are used to working both sides of that line, and we will put a scope in writing so you can hand it to your strata manager rather than trying to describe it yourself.

Common property built for a smaller load

The interwar blocks and the 1960s boom blocks were both sized for an era with no air conditioning, no induction cooktops and no cars to charge. Individual lots have usually been upgraded piecemeal over the decades. The building’s mains and main switchboard frequently have not.

That is why capacity questions in this suburb should start with an assessment of the building, not a quote for the appliance.

Steps instead of driveways

The peninsula falls away steeply from the ridge, and plenty of Cremorne Point addresses are reached on foot down a flight of stairs rather than off a driveway. Every tool, cable drum and replacement switchboard gets carried.

It is entirely workable, but only if it is priced in from the start. We ask about access when you call, which is why we rarely have to come back a second time.

Salt air from two directions

Shell Cove on one side, Mosman Bay on the other. Outdoor GPOs, garden lighting, jetty and boatshed fittings and anything on a balcony corrode here at a rate that surprises people who have moved from further inland.

We specify properly IP-rated marine-appropriate fittings and stainless fixings outdoors. It costs more once rather than less three times.

Sandstone under everything

The point is a rock finger with a thin skin of soil over it. Trenching for garden lighting, a detached studio or an underground supply is rarely the straightforward dig people expect from looking at the lawn.

Where the rock makes a trench unreasonable we will say so and propose a surface or overhead route instead, rather than quoting low and discovering it on day two.

Sixty per cent of residents work from home

At the 2021 Census, 60 per cent of employed Cremorne Point residents worked from home, one of the highest rates anywhere on the lower North Shore. That changes what an outage costs and what a spare circuit is worth.

It also makes hard-wired data worth doing properly. Thick masonry in older blocks defeats wi-fi long before it defeats a cable.

Briefly

How a pleasure garden became an apartment suburb

The short version, because the buildings matter more than the backstory.

  1. 1856

    Cremorne Gardens opens

    Clarke and Woolcott open an English-style pleasure ground on the point on Easter Monday, complete with dance stages, a carousel and a shooting gallery, reached by ferry from Circular Quay. It lasts about six years.

  2. 1905

    The foreshore is saved

    Cremorne Reserve is gazetted after a campaign by the Harbour Foreshores Vigilance Committee, locking in the bushland strip that still wraps the whole peninsula, and keeping the waterfront out of private hands.

  3. 1911

    The wharf is cut into the cliff

    Cremorne wharf is built, carved from the sandstone with a turning circle for the new tramline. The trams stopped in April 1956; the ferries never did.

  4. 1920s–60s

    The flats arrive

    Interwar apartment buildings bring middle-class housing to the point, guesthouses are converted or replaced, and a second wave from the 1960s produces the block stock that dominates the suburb today, and most of our work in it.

Before you book

Two approvals, not one

North Sydney Council (02) 9936 8100. A different council to Willoughby.

Cremorne Point sits in the North Sydney Council area, not Willoughby, so the planning controls, heritage mapping and tree rules are all North Sydney’s. Worth knowing if you have been given advice by someone used to working a few suburbs west.

But in an apartment suburb, council is usually the second hurdle rather than the first. The owners corporation is the one that matters most. Work on common property needs their approval, and often a by-law for anything that stays permanently attached. That covers the main switchroom, rising mains, common area and car park lighting, the intercom, and anything fixed to an external wall or penetrating a common slab.

Inside your own lot you have far more latitude, though a strata scheme can still have conditions about noise, access and insurance for trades on site. Buildings here are old enough that many have their own quirks about which cupboard the switchroom key lives in.

We are not planners or strata lawyers. What we will do is give you a written scope you can put in front of your committee or strata manager, and tell you plainly when a job needs their sign-off before we book it in rather than after.

What we do here

The jobs Cremorne Point calls about

Weighted heavily toward strata and saltwater, because that is what this peninsula actually is.

Strata & common property

Main switchrooms, rising mains, stairwell and car park lighting, emergency and exit light testing, intercoms, and straight answers for committees about what a building’s supply will and will not carry.

Strata electrician

Switchboard upgrades

Both kinds: the small board inside an older flat, and the common property board that everything hangs off. Modern RCBOs give proper shock and fault protection and make the next upgrade far less painful.

Switchboard upgrades

Rewiring flats & older homes

Apartment rewires need routes that stay inside your lot, which takes planning in solid masonry. The Arts and Crafts and Federation houses on the point need the same care for different reasons.

Electrical rewiring

Data cabling & home offices

With most working residents at home, a dropout is not a nuisance, it is a work stoppage. Hard-wired data to the rooms that matter beats another mesh node in a solid-walled 1930s flat.

Data cabling

Outdoor, stair & jetty lighting

Stone steps, terraced gardens and waterfront frontages need light that is genuinely weatherproof and does not glare across the harbour. Marine-appropriate fittings and stainless fixings, because salt finds everything else.

Outdoor lighting

Consumer mains & Level 2

The limiting factor whenever a lot or a whole building wants more than it was designed for. Mains, metering and the point of attachment are Level 2 accredited work, which we hold and carry out ourselves.

Consumer mains

See all services

Around the point

Streets and landmarks we work around

The whole suburb is walkable in half an hour, which is part of why we like working here.

  • Milson Road
  • Bogota Avenue
  • Hodgson Avenue
  • Cremorne Point Wharf
  • Cremorne Reserve
  • MacCallum Pool
  • Robertson Point Light
  • Lex & Ruby Graham Gardens
  • Shell Cove
  • Mosman Bay
  • The foreshore walk
Good to know

Cremorne Point electrical questions

Who approves electrical work in my apartment: me or the owners corporation?

It depends which side of the lot boundary the work sits on. Anything inside your own lot is generally yours to arrange: power points, internal lighting, your own switchboard, and cabling within your apartment’s walls. Anything on common property, including the main switchroom, rising mains, stair and car park lighting, the building’s intercom and anything mounted on an external wall, needs the owners corporation. Work that penetrates a common wall or slab usually needs their approval even though it is for your lot. We will describe the scope in writing so you can put it to your strata manager.

Can you reach an address that is only accessible by stairs?

Yes. A fair number of Cremorne Point properties fall away steeply from Milson Road toward the foreshore, and some are reached on foot down a flight of steps rather than from a driveway. We plan for it. The gear gets carried in, so we scope the job properly beforehand rather than discovering the access on the day and having to come back.

Why do outdoor fittings corrode so quickly here?

The peninsula has water on both sides, Shell Cove to the west and Mosman Bay to the east, so almost every property is exposed to salt-laden air, and many are only metres from the water. Salt attacks terminals, screws and fitting bodies far faster than it does inland. On anything outdoors we specify properly IP-rated, marine-appropriate fittings and stainless fixings, because the cheaper fitting simply gets replaced two or three times over the same period.

Can we get EV charging into an older Cremorne Point block?

Often, but the building’s rising mains and main switchboard decide it rather than the charger. Blocks here were built across the interwar years and the 1960s apartment boom, when nobody was sizing supply for cars. The honest first step is a capacity assessment of the building, not a quote for a charger. Where capacity is tight, load-managed shared charging with per-lot metering is usually far more achievable than individual full-speed chargers.

How does your pricing work?

Attending your job is a chargeable callout. We confirm what it costs when you book, and the price for the work itself is agreed before we start, so there are no surprises on the invoice.

How quickly can you get to Cremorne Point?

We are based in Castlecrag, a short run around the harbour. For small urgent jobs, call before 11am and we can usually be there the same day. Larger booked work is currently running about a week ahead.

Next door

We also cover the surrounding suburbs

Cremorne Point is a dead end by design, so everything nearby is back up Military Road way or across the water.

Covering all 48 North Shore suburbs. See the full list of locations we service.

Need an electrician at Cremorne Point?

Upfront pricing, with the price agreed before we start. Call before 11am for same-day service.

Call 0401 427 270 Request a quote
Call 0401 427 270 Quote