Blackwood Sa

Southern Adelaide · South Australia

What's Blackwood made of?

Mostly 1960s cream brick veneer on 700-1,200m² blocks, sitting on hills soils on slope, with low pressure to knock down and rebuild. City of Mitcham.

Who built Blackwood
1960s cream brick veneer 25%1970s brown brick 25%Hills homes on sloping blocks 25%Interwar bungalows 15%Infill townhouses and rebuilds 10%

The eras, street by street

1960s cream brick veneer

25%
1960s

Triple-fronted cream brick veneer, low hip tiled roof, aluminium or steel windows, concrete slab, carport on the side. The Adelaide suburb standard.

1970s brown brick

25%
1970s

Brown brick veneer, mission-brown aluminium windows, ducted evaporative on the roof, a family room off the kitchen and a pergola out the back. Project homes from the big volume builders.

Hills homes on sloping blocks

25%
1880s-2020s

Stone cottages in the old townships, then 1970s-90s split-levels and pole homes on steep bush blocks, then modern estate stages on cleared land.

Interwar bungalows

15%
1920s-1940s

Californian and Tudor-style bungalows in red brick or freestone, tiled roofs, deep verandahs, leadlight windows. Many on 700-900m² blocks.

Infill townhouses and rebuilds

10%
2000s-2020s

Two or three homes where one 1960s house stood: Torrens-title courtyard homes, hammerhead battle-axe blocks, occasional two-storey townhouse rows.

Typical block
700-1,200m²
Typical frontage
18-25m
Rebuild pressure
Low

Under the floor

Soil

Hills soils on slope

Shallow clay loam over rock, often steep. Movement is less about reactivity and more about slope stability, stormwater and cut-and-fill. Retaining walls become the biggest hidden cost, and bushfire rules shape the whole design.

In the walls

  • Asbestos in eaves, bathroom, laundry and fence
  • Galvanised pipes and low water pressure
  • Empty wall cavities (no insulation)
  • Original switchboard with ceramic fuses
  • Stumps due (VIC) or slab-edge dampness (SA)
  • Asbestos still present in wet areas and eaves to the mid-80s
  • Single-glazed dark aluminium windows
  • Original ducted systems at end of life
What each of these costs to fix

How the streets are changing

Stable hills-edge suburb. Infill only near the shops and train line.

The thing locals know

Bushfire rules apply to the gully streets, and the slate under the topsoil makes trenching expensive.

Time machine

What's changed in Blackwood since Nan bought

House prices in years of wages, decade by decade, what was standing when, and what her block does now.

Open the timeline

Questions about Blackwood

Do houses in Blackwood have asbestos?+

Likely in the older stock. About 65% of Blackwood was built between the 1920s and 1980s, the peak asbestos period. Eaves, wet-area sheeting, fences and sheds are the usual places. Test before you drill, sand or demolish.

What soil is under Blackwood?+

Hills soils on slope. Shallow clay loam over rock, often steep. Movement is less about reactivity and more about slope stability, stormwater and cut-and-fill. Retaining walls become the biggest hidden cost, and bushfire rules shape the whole design.

Can I subdivide a block in Blackwood?+

Low subdivision pressure: Streets look much as they did. Occasional renovation, very little demolition. Typical blocks are 700-1,200m². Check the zone and minimum site area in the Planning and Design Code for the exact street.

Street-level generalisations from council heritage studies, ABS dwelling-age data, soil classification maps and BuildPilot partner site reports. Every street has exceptions. A soil test, a building inspection and the council's overlay map beat any suburb profile, including this one.

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