What's different about Narre Warren
A fire edge on the north side
Black Saturday destroyed six homes in Narre Warren South and three in Narre Warren North. Since then, homes in Victoria's bushfire-prone areas get a Bushfire Attack Level (BAL) rating that sets how they must be built, and land under a Bushfire Management Overlay can carry extra planning rules.
The little hills
The name may mean small hills, and Narre Warren's are mostly north of the urban area. Sloping blocks with trees around them mean fuller gutters and trickier ladder work.
Almost all houses
At the 2021 Census, 91.7% of occupied homes were separate houses. Narre Warren had 359 people in 1954 and 13,594 by 1991, then 24,526 in 2001, so nearly all the housing is from that growth.
A 1950s planned estate
In 1956 Isador Magid began an estate at the Princes Highway and Narre Warren North Road, laid out on Radburn lines with linear parks behind the houses. If you back onto one of those parks, check the rear gutters as often as the front.
Getting a roof ready for fire season
Embers get into roof spaces through small gaps. Monier says roof spaces are highly vulnerable to ember entry, and that non-combustible tiles fitted with ember protection and fire-rated sarking can form part of a roof that complies with AS 3959.
Clear gutters before summer, and if you're near bush or grassland, look at ember guards rather than plain leaf mesh.
Away from the fire edge, the jobs are the everyday ones: roof leak repair, rebedding on tiled roofs and regular gutter cleaning.
Your part, and the roofer's
You can
- Clear gutters you can reach from a ladder on firm, level ground, before summer
- Rake leaves away from the walls and out from under the eaves
- Look for gaps under ridge caps and around pipes from the ground with binoculars
Leave to a roofer
- Fitting ember guards and sealing gaps along the roofline
- Gutters on a sloping block or a second storey
- Checking whether your roof and guards suit your BAL rating
If it were our roof in Narre Warren
If you're near the northern hills or any bush or grass edge, we'd book a gutter clean in spring and have the roofer seal obvious ember gaps on the same visit. Elsewhere in the suburb, we'd keep the money for leaks and ridge work as they come up.
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.
