Blacktown, through an electrician's eyes
Mostly houses
Separate houses made up 65.4% of Blacktown's homes at the 2021 Census, with townhouses and semis another 18.6%.
A post-war city
Blacktown City Council says the population began to grow after the Second World War, with large-scale housing in Blacktown and north of Mount Druitt in the 1960s and 1970s.
Endeavour Energy country
Ausgrid's postcode checker puts 2148 on Endeavour Energy, whose fault line is 131 003.
Hail that cuts power
The 9 December 2007 storm brought 7 cm hail to Blacktown and about 20,000 homes lost power. The October 2021 supercell peaked just west of the suburb.
A big rental market
43.4% of homes were rented in 2021, so landlord repair rules come up often.
Dark board in the meter box? Leave it be
Electrical backing boards made before 1987 can contain asbestos, and they're usually black or dark brown, sometimes stamped Zelemite or Lebah on the back. Don't drill, cut or scrape one. Mention it when you book, so the electrician can plan for it before any work starts.
What a 1960s Blacktown board usually needs
If the fuses are the ceramic kind you pull out, the board was built before safety switches were common. NSW Fair Trading strongly recommends anyone in a home built before 2000 has a licensed electrician check whether safety switches are fitted. In a city that mostly grew after the war, that covers a lot of houses.
An upgrade replaces the fuses with circuit breakers, adds safety switches and leaves room for a heat pump, an induction cooktop or an EV charger later. A switchboard upgrade is on the approved list for NSW Home Energy Saver loans, so check whether your plans qualify.
After hail, the usual calls are about water getting through a damaged roof into light fittings. Turn the power off at the main switch if you can do it safely, and leave the fittings to a sparky.
If it were our house in Blacktown
We'd have the original board looked at before adding anything big. One visit tells you whether it has safety switches, whether the backing board needs an asbestos plan, and whether there's room for what you want next.
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.