What we look for in Nollamara, and why it differs from the suburb next door. 8.1 km from the CBD, 7.4 km from the coast, postcode 6061.
Nollamara is the oldest of the Mirrabooka Project suburbs, developed by the State Housing Commission in the early 1950s. It also sits closest in, about eight kilometres from the city, which is why it now feels almost inner and why so much of it is being pulled down.
Seventy years is the number to hold on to. Original stock from the early 1950s has services either original or through a single ageing replacement, wet area fabric well past a second cycle, and roof plumbing due.
Asbestos matters here more than in the later Mirrabooka suburbs. Early 1950s construction used asbestos containing materials as standard, so fibro sheeting, eaves linings and fencing are genuinely likely on anything unrenovated, and that needs identifying before any renovation begins rather than partway through it.
Proximity is driving the change. At eight kilometres out, R-code infill and subdivision are running hard, so an original single storey house on one block sits beside brand new grouped dwellings on the next. Two entirely different inspections, sometimes sharing a boundary.
On a subdivided lot, read the easements and the shared arrangements properly. Driveways, drainage and party walls outlast owners, and they involve a neighbour who will be there long after the agent has moved on.
Inland and close in, so salt and delignification sit low on the list.
Seventy year old ground and seventy year old gardens. Buried timber, stumps from trees long removed, garden beds banked against wall bases since the Menzies era.
Whatever protection went into these houses at construction stopped working decades ago, and on stock that spent much of its life in public ownership or rental very little was ever renewed.
Subdivision adds a specific complication. Splitting a block turns soil that has been settled for seventy years, puts fresh timber into the ground as new fencing and retaining, and does it a couple of metres from an old house with no functioning barrier. New dwellings carry a durable notice. The original at the front usually carries nothing at all.
On a modest single storey house the perimeter, the wet areas and the roof serve both inspections, so one attendance covers it. Reported under AS 4349.1 and AS 4349.3.
Get the asbestos position understood before setting a renovation budget on any original house here. On early 1950s stock it is not a remote possibility, and finding out afterwards is an expensive way to learn.
Infill drives most of the rest. Condition records for the original dwelling while excavation happens behind it, staged inspections during the build, and a handover check when the new dwelling is finished. Disputes over drainage and shared access on subdivided lots come up regularly, and we prepare reports on those.
If a house here has never been renovated, that is worth knowing rather than assuming. Seventy years of original fabric is a real budget, and it is far better understood at offer stage than after settlement.
Nollamara is the oldest of the Mirrabooka Project suburbs, with early-1950s State Housing Commission stock now around seventy years old, so the original 1950s fabric carries possible early asbestos-era materials and is well past first service life. That genuinely old post-war fabric is the base layer of the suburb, and where it survives un-modernised the structure and services are the priority. Nineteen-fifties construction means asbestos-containing materials (fibro, eaves, fencing) are genuinely likely on the original stock, so that is a real check on anything unrenovated.
Its close-in location, around eight kilometres out, is driving subdivision and R-code infill, so you routinely find an old SHC house on one block and a brand-new duplex or triplex next door, which is two inspections side by side and, where a home borders active construction, a case for a dilapidation record beforehand. Inland but close-in, salt and delignification are low priority. A Nollamara inspection reads the seventy-year-old SHC fabric with its asbestos likelihood first, then handles the old-house-beside-new-infill reality that the suburb's close-in position has created. The 1950s origins and the current teardown pressure are what define it.
On an original Nollamara home the inspection reads genuinely old post-war fabric: the 1950s switchboard and wiring near or past end of life, plumbing due for renewal, and wet areas long past any membrane standard. Asbestos-containing materials, fibro, eaves and fencing, are genuinely likely on the original stock, so they are noted for licensed assessment. Where the close-in infill pressure has produced a new duplex or triplex beside an old SHC house, the inspection shifts to that stock's strata and common-property picture, and where a home adjoins active construction a dilapidation record before works is worth having. Inland and close-in, salt stays a low priority.
None of it is guesswork. Reading the stock above into an inspection, these are the checks the Nollamara pattern pushes to the top of the list:
Nollamara sits on the Spearwood dune system — residual yellow and grey sand over a Tamala Limestone core, with the rock often close to the surface. Limestone near the surface makes for stable footings and expensive excavation. Where the rock is shallow, older houses often sit directly on limestone footings, and those are the ones to look at for rising damp and salt damp at the base of the wall.
What that means in practice, on a house in Nollamara:
Landform is assigned from the suburb's position on the Swan Coastal Plain rather than from a site soil test. It tells you what to expect, not what you have. A site classification to AS 2870 is a different exercise and a different report.
Westminster, Tuart Hill, Yokine and Balga sit on the same ground as Nollamara, so the footing behaviour and the drainage problems tend to repeat across all of them. If you are comparing houses across those suburbs, you are largely comparing the same site conditions.
Dianella is 2.2 km away but sits on the Bassendean dune system; Mirrabooka is 2.4 km away but sits on the Bassendean dune system. That is the useful thing about this part of Perth: the ground can change inside a few kilometres, and with it what an inspection is looking for.
On site classification: any soil zone quoted for a suburb is indicative, inferred from geography rather than surveyed. A real AS 2870 classification comes from geotechnical work on your actual block and can differ from the one next door. We report what we observe; we do not read your soil class off a map.
The inspection is visual and non-invasive, over the readily accessible areas, reported to AS 4349.1. Our inspectors physically enter the roof space, as long as there is sufficient access. Report within 24 hours of the inspection.
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Flat fee, the same in Nollamara as anywhere: $440 inc. GST for a pre-purchase building inspection, or $616 inc. GST with the timber pest scope added in the same visit. Full price list →
7.4 km inland through Wanneroo, the salt risk in Nollamara is real but secondary. The same fee weighs an older roof for corrosion alongside the wet areas, the drainage and the movement patterns the Wanneroo stock tends to show.
Pre-purchase building inspection in Nollamara →
Building and pest inspection in Nollamara →
Yes. Our inspectors physically enter and inspect the roof space, as long as there is sufficient access to do so safely. Where access is restricted, the report says so plainly rather than implying we saw more than we did.
Nollamara is 7.4 km from the coast — outside the highest-exposure band, but close enough that salt-driven delignification is worth checking in an older tiled roof.
Within 24 hours of the inspection itself, not 24 hours from booking. On a pre-purchase or pre-settlement job that timing is the whole point, because your leverage disappears once you are committed.
We would rather you checked than took our word for it. These are the bodies that actually hold the records and set the rules:
Tell us about the property and what you need. We'll come back to you with a firm quote and a time.
PERTH