WHERE TO BUILD? WHAT TO BUILD? HOW TO BUILD?

With the Diversity of Climate and Landscape in Australia Comes a Wonderful Diversity in Architecture

Australia is a land where people have a large relative choice of where they want to live. The most important factor in determining where people live has in the past generally been 'where they grew up'. However that has changed and people now live mainly where the work is. Of course people in Australia still have a certain degree of choice as far as work goes, so with that comes a relative amount of choice as to where to live.

Although in times past each state and vacinity generally had its own style of houses, ranging from the limestone cottages of South Australia - where limestone is more than plentiful - to the famous 'Queenslander' - a house built on stilts to allow the breezes to cool the house in the tropical climate, times may have changed.

Over the years though, building materials have changed little, although with some additions like drywall plaster sheeting and gypsum blocks. The above house, still built to the idea of being 'off the ground' is still built in timber cladding, only the style has really changed from those built earlier in the century. With a backdrop of sugar-cane and the Cairns Highlands, this misty covered valley is the typical setting for a house built simply but effectively to withstand the tropical humidity.

This modern looking Queensland house displays the more typical new century structure found in most new estates across Australia. Although there is still a certain variety in styles the extreme differences due to landscape and climate has been somewhat lost in the modern Aussie home.

With the general exception of houses built on the side of a hill, most modern family homes are standard lowset or two storey structures, built from brick, rendered block and you still see houses built in timber cladding.

The variety now is seen more in individual style with a sprinkling of 'fashionable' materials like limestone and sandstone still being used. The benefit of these materials is their durability and the moderate climate produced by the materials.

When the early settlers first came to Australia they brought with them a great variety of building styles. Although little snow falls in the Barossa Valley, you can see the expectation, it IS after all very cold at times, with steep roofs like on this famous Nuriootpa Bakery.

Photo courtesy Digital Light Photography

A great example of an early Australian stone building with plastered walls can be seen in this converted chuch building on Norfolk Island. Another fixture of most early Australian architecture seen here, both in homes and in community buildings, particularly in the colder southern parts of the country, is the chimney, indicating a nice warm log fireplace inside.

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