What does landscaping cost in Melbourne's south-east? A real price breakdown
Landscaping prices for Melbourne's south-east in 2026, from per-square-metre rates for turf, paving and walls through to full front and backyard packages.
Search "landscaping cost" and you'll find national averages that are useless for a real block in Clyde North or Pakenham. Landscaping isn't one product with one price. It's a stack of trades, and your total depends on which of them your yard needs. So here's the honest version: the 2026 rates we quote from, line by line, and what complete yards land at when you put the lines together.
Quick answer
For Melbourne's south-east in 2026:
- Per square metre of yard, fully landscaped: most projects land between $80 and $250/m² of outdoor area, depending on how much of the yard is hard surface versus lawn and garden.
- A new-build front yard package: typically $8,000 to $18,000.
- A full backyard: typically $15,000 to $50,000, with destination yards beyond that. Our backyard makeover cost guide breaks this into detailed tiers.
The line-item rates
These are installed prices, including prep work, for 2026:
| Item | Rate |
|---|---|
| Turf, supplied and laid | $25 to $45/m² |
| Garden beds (soil, plants, mulch, edging) | $40 to $90/m² |
| Plain concrete paths and patios | $90 to $120/m² |
| Exposed aggregate | $120 to $180/m² |
| Paver patios | $140 to $200/m² |
| Retaining walls | $300 to $700/m² of wall face |
| Drip irrigation | $8 to $15/m² of garden |
| Decorative gravel and pebble areas | $30 to $60/m² |
Each of those has its own deep-dive on this blog, including turf, retaining walls, concrete driveways and exposed aggregate.
The single most useful thing to understand about your total: hard landscaping costs 4 to 8 times more per square metre than soft landscaping. A 400m² yard that's mostly lawn and garden beds might land at $18,000. The same 400m² with a big alfresco extension, retaining walls and wide paths can pass $60,000. When budgets are tight, we shift area from hard surface to lawn and planting, not the other way around.
Three real-world totals
New-build front yard, Officer. 90m² of yard: 55m² of Sir Walter, two mulched garden beds with natives, a 12m² path to the door, drip irrigation to the beds. $9,400 all up.
Builder-handover backyard, Clyde North. 280m²: 150m² of turf, 30m² plain concrete patio, garden beds on three fence lines, irrigation. $21,500 all up. (This is the classic first-home package. Our builder handover checklist covers what to check before work like this starts.)
Sloped backyard with walls, Berwick. 380m²: 16m of concrete sleeper retaining wall stepping the block, 60m² exposed aggregate alfresco, 180m² of turf, mature planting, full irrigation. $44,000 all up.
What makes south-east blocks different
Three local factors push our quotes around more than the postcode-average articles admit:
Reactive clay. Almost every block from Berwick to Pakenham sits on heavy clay. It needs proper bases under paving, drainage behind walls, and improved topsoil under turf. Done right, it adds 10 to 20% versus building on friendly loam. Skipped, it halves the life of everything on top. Details in our clay soil guide.
Flat, bare handovers. Builders leave new blocks graded level with no falls. Getting water moving (gentle grades, the odd drain) is a hidden line on most new-estate quotes, usually $500 to $2,500.
Estate design guidelines. Many growth-corridor estates have covenants on front yard landscaping, sometimes with deadlines (commonly 6 to 12 months after handover) and minimum standards. Check your contract. We routinely design front yards to satisfy specific estate guidelines on the first submission.
Where people overspend (and underspend)
Overspend: premium paving over huge areas. The look you want usually survives shrinking the premium surface by a third and framing it with planting.
Overspend: advanced trees everywhere. One feature tree at instant-impact size plus fast-growing smaller stock elsewhere gets the same effect by year two at a fraction of the cost.
Underspend: soil and drainage. Nobody sees them at the housewarming, but they decide whether your lawn and plants are thriving or dying in year three.
Underspend: irrigation. At $8 to $15/m² of garden it's the cheapest insurance you can buy for everything else you've planted.
Staging if the budget doesn't stretch
Most of our growth-corridor clients stage. The order that works: drainage and any retaining walls first (they're disruptive), then paving, then turf and planting, then features and lighting. Built in that order, stage two never digs up stage one. The backyard makeover guide shows a typical three-year phasing pattern with numbers.
Get a number for your actual yard
Rates and averages get you in the ballpark. A real number takes a site measure, a look at your soil and falls, and a conversation about how you'll use the space. We do that for free across Casey and Cardinia, with a written itemised quote within 24 hours.
- See the full landscape construction service
- Browse local projects in Pakenham and Officer
- Call (03) 4328 2781 or request a quote