Woodville Sa

Western Adelaide · South Australia

What's Woodville made of?

Mostly infill townhouses and rebuilds on 500-800m² blocks, sitting on limestone and calcrete, with high pressure to knock down and rebuild. City of Charles Sturt.

Who built Woodville
Infill townhouses and rebuilds 30%Villas and cottages 25%Interwar bungalows 25%Post-war Trust and Commission homes 15%1960s cream brick veneer 5%

The eras, street by street

Infill townhouses and rebuilds

30%
2000s-2020s

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

Villas and cottages

25%
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.

Interwar bungalows

25%
1920s-1940s

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

Post-war Trust and Commission homes

15%
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.

1960s cream brick veneer

5%
1960s

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

Typical block
500-800m²
Typical frontage
15-18m
Rebuild pressure
High

Under the floor

Soil

Limestone and calcrete

Shallow limestone under a thin sandy or loamy topsoil, common across Adelaide's west and north-west. Stable to build on but expensive to trench; expect rock-breaking for services and pools. Salt damp is common in older stone and brick.

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
  • Salt damp and rising damp in stone and early brick (no damp-proof course)
  • Lead paint on every layer
  • Lath-and-plaster ceilings that sag
  • Original wiring may survive behind later additions
What each of these costs to fix

How the streets are changing

St Clair and the old hospital land brought a whole new suburb; the older streets are subdividing steadily.

The thing locals know

Salt damp in the stone villas and limestone under the yard. Trenching for a pool costs more than the pool shell.

Time machine

What's changed in Woodville 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 Woodville

Do houses in Woodville have asbestos?+

Likely in the older stock. About 45% of Woodville 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 Woodville?+

Limestone and calcrete. Shallow limestone under a thin sandy or loamy topsoil, common across Adelaide's west and north-west. Stable to build on but expensive to trench; expect rock-breaking for services and pools. Salt damp is common in older stone and brick.

Can I subdivide a block in Woodville?+

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 500-800m². 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.

Cookies on. Learn more