Paradise Sa

North-East Adelaide · South Australia

What's Paradise made of?

Mostly 1960s cream brick veneer on 650-850m² blocks, sitting on bay of biscay reactive clay, with high pressure to knock down and rebuild. City of Campbelltown.

Who built Paradise
1960s cream brick veneer 35%1970s brown brick 30%Infill townhouses and rebuilds 25%Post-war Trust and Commission homes 10%

The eras, street by street

1960s cream brick veneer

35%
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

30%
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.

Infill townhouses and rebuilds

25%
2000s-2020s

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

Post-war Trust and Commission homes

10%
1945-1965

SA Housing Trust double-brick and cream-brick semis and singles, concrete or timber floors, small windows, hip roofs in tile or iron. Solid and simple.

Typical block
650-850m²
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

  • 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

Same story as Campbelltown a few years behind it. Corner blocks and anything over 800m² attract developers first.

The thing locals know

The Torrens Linear Park runs through it, so the streets nearest the river have flood overlay questions the others do not.

Time machine

What's changed in Paradise 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 Paradise

Do houses in Paradise have asbestos?+

Likely in the older stock. About 75% of Paradise 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 Paradise?+

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 Paradise?+

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 650-850m². 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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