Which suburbs count as the Inner West?
Inner West Council was formed in 2016 by merging Ashfield, Leichhardt and Marrickville councils. It runs from Balmain, Birchgrove and Rozelle on the harbour side down to Dulwich Hill, Sydenham and Tempe near the Cooks River, taking in Annandale, Leichhardt, Newtown, Stanmore, Petersham, Ashfield, Haberfield and Summer Hill on the way. Wider definitions add Burwood, Canada Bay and Strathfield.
Marrickville and Canterbury have their own pages.
What shapes Inner West roofs
Terraces and timber cottages
Glebe, Newtown and Annandale kept large numbers of two-storey terraces and one-storey terraced and timber cottages, and the innermost suburbs still have Victorian stone houses. Across the council area in 2021, 27.1% of homes were terraces, semis or townhouses and 42.4% were flats.
Bungalows further out
Once these suburbs were cut up around the turn of the 20th century, Federation houses took over, then simplified into the Californian bungalow you'll see through most of the Inner West.
Haberfield has its own list
Haberfield's garden suburb began in 1901. Council's controls there allow unglazed terracotta Marseilles tiles matching the originals, terracotta shingle tiles or Welsh slate, with non-reflective corrugated steel only at the rear or on skillion roofs.
River water, mostly calm
The northern suburbs face the Parramatta River and bays such as Iron Cove and Hen and Chicken Bay. BlueScope gives the Parramatta River as an example of calm water, where standard Colorbond can go at any distance, though bare Zincalume should stay more than 100 m back. Toward the harbour end, ask your roofer to confirm.
What council's heritage controls ask of a roof
- Keep original roof cladding and chimneys on heritage items and contributory buildings.
- On a detached house, keep the whole original roof form: pitch, ridge height, hips, gables and eaves.
- On terraces and semis, keep the shared ridge line running along the row.
- Repair original chimneys, dormers, decorative gables and ridge capping, even when a chimney no longer works.
- Put a skylight or small rear dormer only where it can't be seen from the street frontage.
- Protect and repair unglazed terracotta or slate, and use dark, non-reflective frames for any solar panels on it.
The jobs that come up across the Inner West
Repairs that keep the original roof. Because council wants original cladding kept, most work here is repair: refixing slipped slates or tiles, new flashings and rebedding and repointing the ridge caps, which means relaying and resealing the mortar that holds them down.
Like-for-like re-roofs. When a heritage roof is past saving, expect it to be relaid in matching materials.
Approval questions. NSW lets some roof tile and sheeting replacement proceed as exempt development, but not in heritage conservation areas. Council says some minor maintenance can qualify for a heritage exemption instead, so describe the job to council rather than assuming either way.
Our take for Inner West homes
Before you collect quotes, find out whether your house is a heritage item or sits in a conservation area, because it changes what a roofer can offer. If it does, we'd ask for repair-first quotes that name the matching tiles or slates, and we'd wait for council's answer before agreeing to anything visible from the street.
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.