Magill Sa

Eastern Adelaide · South Australia

What's Magill made of?

Mostly infill townhouses and rebuilds on 650-900m² blocks, sitting on bay of biscay reactive clay, with high pressure to knock down and rebuild. City of Campbelltown / City of Burnside.

Who built Magill
Infill townhouses and rebuilds 35%1960s cream brick veneer 30%Interwar bungalows 15%1970s brown brick 15%Villas and cottages 5%

The eras, street by street

Infill townhouses and rebuilds

35%
2000s-2020s

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

1960s cream brick veneer

30%
1960s

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

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.

1970s brown brick

15%
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.

Villas and cottages

5%
1850s-1910s

Bluestone or sandstone fronts, brick quoins, slate or corrugated-iron roofs, a bullnose verandah and 3.3m ceilings. Rooms off a central hall.

Typical block
650-900m²
Typical frontage
18m
Rebuild pressure
High

Under the floor

Soil

Bay of Biscay reactive clay

Highly reactive black or grey clay that swells in winter and shrinks hard in summer. Cracked walls, doors that stick in one season and swing in another, and slabs designed to Class H1 or H2 (deep edge beams or waffle pods). Keep water away from the footings and do not plant big trees close to the house.

In the walls

  • Party walls and shared driveways on community or strata titles
  • Small setbacks mean little garden and less solar access
  • Quality varies enormously between developer-builders
  • Neighbourhood character disputes
  • Asbestos in eaves, bathroom, laundry and fence
  • Galvanised pipes and low water pressure
  • Empty wall cavities (no insulation)
  • Original switchboard with ceramic fuses
What each of these costs to fix

How the streets are changing

The university end and the flat streets north of Magill Road are subdividing quickly. The slopes toward the hills stay single-house.

The thing locals know

The old Penfolds vineyard shaped the street grid. Some of the best-draining blocks in the east sit where the vines were.

Time machine

What's changed in Magill 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 Magill

Do houses in Magill have asbestos?+

Likely in the older stock. About 60% of Magill 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 Magill?+

Bay of Biscay reactive clay. Highly reactive black or grey clay that swells in winter and shrinks hard in summer. Cracked walls, doors that stick in one season and swing in another, and slabs designed to Class H1 or H2 (deep edge beams or waffle pods). Keep water away from the footings and do not plant big trees close to the house.

Can I subdivide a block in Magill?+

High subdivision pressure: Two or three homes replacing one on many streets. Original houses are becoming the minority and land value drives everything. Typical blocks are 650-900m². 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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