Five small rooms and two power points
The state's postwar heritage survey tells the story of a family who rented, then bought, one of the German prefabricated timber houses put up on Morphett Road, Dover Gardens, in the Marion council area. It stood on blocks, had Baltic pine walls and five small rooms, and two power points.
Not every Marion house started that bare, but the austerity homes of that era were basic by design. If yours still runs on its early circuits, you'll know it: power boards in every room, a kitchen where you can't run the kettle and toaster together, and a switchboard that's been added to rather than replaced. More power points and a switchboard upgrade are the two jobs that fix most of it.
Marion's homes, then and now
A village swallowed by the suburbs
Marion was set up in 1838 as a rural village on the Sturt River, and Adelaide's suburban spread had surrounded it by the 1950s.
Austerity brick
Much of the early housing was basic three and four bedroom homes on bare quarter-acre blocks, with cavity walls of double brick, or brick with Mount Gambier stone.
One block, three homes
Infill is replacing many houses with two or three residences. By 2021, 30.7% of Marion's occupied homes were townhouses or semi-detached, against 67.7% separate houses.
Settled and mostly owned
In 2021 the median age was 43, a third of homes were owned outright and 24.8% were rented.
What's yours to do, and what's licensed work
You can
- Count the power boards and double adaptors in each room, and tell the electrician
- Note which circuits trip, and when
- Test your safety switch with its test button every few months
- Plan where you want new power points and lights before anyone quotes
Leave to a licensed electrician
- New power points and circuits
- Replacing an old fuse board with breakers and safety switches
- Any wiring work in a renovation or extension
- Connecting supply and the meter for a new infill home
Where we'd start in an older Marion house
We'd walk through the house with the electrician and point at every power board. Each one is a power point the house should have had. Adding them properly, with the board upgraded to suit, ends the daisy chains for good.
Want a specialist to sort it?
Tell us the job and your postcode. We match the licence-checked local electrician who does this kind of work, and they call you. No ring-around, and your number goes to them alone.