The district court has been told a man accused of using a stolen bulldozer to level a house in Lake Macquarie knew people were inside at the time.

The prosecution and defence agree that in June 2015, Jamie Sager stole a bulldozer from a mine site and drove it to a house at Teralba.

He used it to destroy several cars, a boat and then the home.

Sager is charged with maliciously destroying property with the intent to endanger life.

He denies that was his intention and has pleaded guilty to a separate count of using a bulldozer with intent to commit an indictable offence, namely intimidation.

The Crown has told the court Sager knew there were people inside the home because he made eye contact with them through the lounge room window, but the defence disagrees.

The jury were shown pictures of the home before it was destroyed, along with aerial shots taken by PolAir after it had been levelled with the bulldozer still parked on the rubble.

The Crown also tendered photographs showing the bulldozer's external emergency stop buttons had been modified making them inaccessible.

The trial is expected to take several days.