Terrace houses in Australia

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Terrace houses in Australia began to be built in early 19th century Sydney, closely based on the models found in London and other UK cities. They soon developed unique features, particularly elaborate balconies, and became a very popular form of housing right through the Victorian era, with some still built in the Federation era. Large numbers of terraced houses were built in the inner suburbs of the two large Australian cities, Sydney and Melbourne, mainly between the 1850s and the 1890s, with some examples in the smaller cities and towns.^[1][2]

This was a period of population boom started by the Victorian and New South Wales Gold Rushes of the 1850s and finished by the economic depression in the early 1890s. Detached housing had also been built in suburbs further out, and in the smaller cities and towns, and became much more popular by the time of Federation in 1901 in Australia, and became the norm after WW1.

From the 1970s new townhouse type developments, sometimes nostalgically evoking old style terraces in a modern style, began to be built in inner and even middle areas. At the same time, older terraced houses in Australian cities became increasingly sought after, for their charm and proximity to the CBD, and by the 2010s became expensive real estate, much like inner city terraces in London and row houses in New York and elsewhere.^[2]