Posts Tagged ‘semi-detached’

114-116 Grant Street, Golden Point. Ballarat, Victoria

Semi-detached houses: 114-116 Grant Street Golden Point Ballarat Victoria

This pair of semi-detached weatherboard terraces in Golden Point close to Canadian Creek, just south of the Ballarat CBD has an exceptionally rare feature of such houses in Australia, northern European style clipped or half-hipped gables.  Combined with their projective eaves and brackets and other timber decorative detail and mouldings (including six panelled timber Victorian style doors surrounded by sidelights, fanlight and paired double hung windows), bullnosed verandahs, iron lace fringe and brackets and tall polychrome brick chimney and party walls, this is a most distinctive pair of cottages.

77-79 Grey Street, St Kilda. Melbourne, Victoria

77-79 Grey Street St Kilda

This architecturally fascinating eclectic double storey terraced pair located on once fashionable but now seedy St Kilda Hill features aspects of both Federation and Queen Anne styles merged with the terrace house idiom with its distinctive “blood and bandage” red brick and cream render. A picturesque effect is achieved through the central gable parapet along with the steeply pitched slate roof high chimneys with their terracotta pots.

Dating to 1892, the residences were built for Gavan Shaw, a wine merchant who owned and lived in a neighbouring mansion. For many years, however, it operated as a backpacker hostel known as “St Kilda Lodge”.

105 High Street. Ararat, Victoria

Semi detached pair: 105 High Street. Ararat, Victoria


Attached housing is rare in Ararat, a gold rush city, however a handful of single storey examples can still be found, mostly on the main roads leading into town.

This particular pair can be found north of the Western Highway between King and Princes Street and backs onto the railway reserve within very close proximity to the railway station.

Riversleigh: 3-5 Nicholson Street. Bairnsdale, Victoria

Riversleigh: 3-5 Nicholson Street. Bairnsdale, Victoria

Riversleigh is Bairnsdale’s most majestic pair of terrace houses. Built in 1883-4 and attributed to R T Vincent1 tThe semi-detached pair was built to maximise views across the magnificent Mitchell River on the northern edge of the central business district. It is part of a heritage precinct which includes neighbouring Wahroonga mansion and the Bairnsdale courthouse.

Currently the terraces are operated by Choice Hotels as the Comfort Inn Riversleigh and was renovated to the theme of its original character for adaptive reuse in 1987.2

13-15 James Street. Port Fairy, Victoria

Semi-detached cottages: 13-15 James Street. Port Fairy, Victoria

Port Fairy, known as Belfast (after the Irish city) during the early Victorian era was one of the colony’s early thriving coastal settlements and was much the same size as it is today.  So it is not really suprising to find quite a number of  semi-detached and terraced “cottages” about the town.  Unlike other Victorian cities, however due to the 1850s origins, the majority of Port Fairy’s cottages are mostly a very subdued Georgian style of double fronted home  (influenced by Irish architecture) similar to those found in southern Tasmania.  That makes this pair all the more interesting as it is probably more akin to the South Australian colonial terrace with its simple wooden verandah decorations.

77-79 Templeton Street. Castlemaine, Victoria

Terrace Houses: 77-79 Templeton Street. Castlemaine, Victoria

Of the few examples of terraced housing in the gold rush town of Castlemaine, this is possibly the most distinctly Australian of them with its iron lacework and verandah form.

During the gold rush the population of Mount Alexander (as it was then known) was greater than Melbourne.  Confidence that it would continue to grow ensured that a smatterings of terraces emerged in the inner city streets during the 1860s and 1870s, however after the gold dried up more quickly than expected, the form of housing became an oddity in what was a provincial city.

Ray Villa and Harris Villa: 45-47 Waterloo Crescent, St Kilda. Melbourne, Victoria

Ray Villa and Harris Villa: 45-47 Waterloo Crescent, St Kilda

This exuberant semi-detached pair of Victorian Italianate villas, set back from the street, is one of two such pairs in close proximity (the other I will post at a future date).  Disappointingly while other nearby properties do, neither of these pairs has any heritage status under the City of Port Phillip planning scheme.

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Recent Comments
  • Ben: Beautiful, functional terraces (inside & out) within a great location. Clever use of space with enormous...
  • Leah: Hello I live at 15 Simpson Street. It has been lovingly preserved. 15 Simpson Street is divded into four...
  • timothy walker: Is this property for sale or rent. How much garden area is there?
  • timothy walker: I am interested in moving to Castlemaine. Is this property for sale or for rent?
  • MarkD: I’ve seen them hundreds of time and always known them as Shakespeare Terrace, but Shakspeare Terrace is...