Essendon's housing story
A railway and tram suburb
Rail services began in 1871 and the line was duplicated in 1884, when many estates near it were cut up for housing. An electric tramway reached the city in 1906, and in that decade Essendon was again one of Melbourne's fastest growing suburbs.
Federation roofs
Federation-style houses, built roughly 1890 to 1915, typically have deep red or dark brown brick and terracotta tile roofs with decorative gables.
The last paddocks
eMelbourne says the last open land to the north and west was built on in the busy airport years of the 1950s and 1960s.
A third of homes are flats
At the 2021 Census, 33.0% of occupied dwellings were flats or apartments, 47.2% separate houses and 19.6% semi-detached or townhouses.
Repair, restore or replace terracotta?
Terracotta is fired clay, and the tiles usually outlast the mortar holding the ridge and hips together. If the ridge is cracking and a few tiles are broken, rebedding and repointing plus spot repairs is often all a roof needs.
A full restoration makes sense when the roof is also carrying moss or lichen and the ridge is failing all over. Some owners of period houses skip the coating altogether and just clean and repair, which keeps the original look.
If tiles are crumbling across the roof, it's time to price a replacement. Reclaimed or new terracotta in a matching profile keeps a period house looking right. Our page on terracotta tiles covers the options.
Essendon's listed places, from Earlsbrae Hall (1890) to North Park in Woodland Street, each carry a Heritage Overlay number. If your house sits in an overlay, check with Moonee Valley before changing the roof material.
Ask before you say yes
- Will you rebed with flexible pointing or traditional mortar, and why?
- Can you source matching terracotta for any broken tiles?
- Do you recommend coating this roof, or just cleaning and repairing it?
- How will you protect the valleys and gutters while you work?
Our take
On a Federation house with sound terracotta, we'd spend on rebedding and repairs before spending on paint, and keep the original tiles while they're healthy. They're hard to beat for looks. Give us the job and your postcode: we'll send it to one licence-checked roofer who covers Essendon if we have one, and tell you straight away if we don't.
Want a roofer to take a look?
Tell us the job and your postcode. We match it with a Find My Roofer certified roofer who specialises in that kind of work, and they call you to quote. Your number goes to them alone.
