Bungalows east of the railway line, apartment towers west of it, and an industrial estate south of the freeway. They are three completely different electrical jobs, and we do all three, from a 1920s rewire to a three-phase warehouse board.
Pricing agreed before we start. We usually reply the same day.
Most suburbs on the North Shore are one thing. Artarmon is three, and the boundaries are hard lines you can see on a map: the North Shore railway on one side, the Gore Hill Freeway on the other.
East of the line is the old suburb. Subdivision of the Artarmon Estate started in 1910 but the boom did not really arrive until the 1920s, which is why the streets there are so consistently Federation, followed by Californian bungalows through the 1930s. That stock is intact enough that the National Trust recognised it as an Urban Conservation Area in 1989, and it is protected through Willoughby’s planning controls today.
West of the line is a completely different building era. From the 1960s, and formalised by the 1969 West Artarmon Residential Area Redevelopment Plan, the western side was rebuilt as apartments. That means strata: common property switchboards, rising mains, car park lighting and emergency exit testing rather than power points and downlights.
South of the Gore Hill Freeway is the industrial estate, and it is the reason Artarmon has an electrical profile no other lower North Shore suburb has. It started as brickworks in the 1880s, had 42 factories by 1951, and from 1956 became the base of the Australian film and television industry. The ABC opened at Gore Hill that November. SBS is still on Herbert Street and Fox Sports on Broadcast Way.
Three eras, three sets of problems. Knowing which Artarmon you are standing in tells us most of what we need before we arrive.
Tell us your street and we can usually predict the job before we see it. Here is the shape of each.
Solid double-brick houses from the 1920s and 1930s, many still on wiring that was never designed for the way we live now. Original circuits ran lighting and a couple of points; today the same board is asked to carry an induction cooktop, ducted air and a car charger.
Low ceilings and shallow roof pitches also make downlights and ceiling fans more of a planning exercise than they are in a modern house.
The western side was rebuilt as high-rise from the 1960s, so a lot of the stock is now well past the age where original common property electrics still make sense. Rising mains and switchrooms were sized for a building with no air conditioning and no electric cars.
Most of our work here is for owners corporations and building managers rather than individual lot owners, though we do both.
Warehouses, workshops, studios and offices running on three-phase supply. This is a different trade to domestic work: distribution boards, plant and machine circuits, high-bay lighting and the compliance testing a workplace is required to keep up.
Tenancy changes are constant here, and a fitout usually means a new board, new metering and a fresh look at whether the existing supply is actually adequate.
Artarmon’s odd three-way split is not an accident of zoning. It is the residue of two centuries of very different decisions.
William Gore, Provost Marshal under Governor Bligh, receives 150 acres from Governor Macquarie and names the farm after Ardthelmon Castle, his ancestral home in Ireland. Gore Hill still carries his name. He defaults on the mortgage and loses most of the land by 1818.
Brickmaking begins in the area and eventually dominates it. By 1889 the brick industry at Gore Hill is the largest in New South Wales, and the double-brick walls we drill through in east Artarmon were very likely made a few streets away.
The North Shore line opens, letting the brickworks bring in Newcastle coal for the kilns and ship bricks out in bulk. There is still no platform at Artarmon.
Artarmon finally gets its own station, and the Artarmon Estate is subdivided off the back of it. A new island platform opens in 1900 at the current location.
East Artarmon fills out in Federation style, then Californian bungalows through the 1930s. This is the housing stock that still defines the streets east of the line, and the wiring era we most often replace.
The industrial area south of what is now the freeway has grown to 42 factories employing 444 people, establishing the commercial and three-phase character that still sets Artarmon apart.
The ABC opens at Gore Hill in November, with studios built in 1958, and Artarmon becomes the base of the Australian film and television industry. The ABC left for Ultimo in 1991, but SBS on Herbert Street and Fox Sports on Broadcast Way kept the industry here.
The West Artarmon Residential Area Redevelopment Plan formalises the shift to apartments west of the railway, creating the strata stock we now maintain.
The National Trust recognises east Artarmon, south of Mowbray Road, as an Urban Conservation Area. External change there now needs a good deal more thought.
The Artarmon Conservation Area covers the older residential streets east of the railway and south of Mowbray Road. It exists to keep the 1920s and 1930s streetscape intact, which is why it concerns itself with what your house looks like from the footpath rather than what is inside it.
In practice, that means the work most people call us for is unaffected. Rewiring, replacing a switchboard where it already sits, adding internal points, repairing fittings and upgrading lighting are all maintenance rather than development.
What is worth a call to Council first is anything that changes the front of the house: relocating a meter box to a visible wall, new external conduit, an air conditioning condenser in view of the street, solar, or a car charger mounted where it can be seen. The same goes for trees. Willoughby requires approval to prune or remove most trees over four metres, so trimming a branch off your own service line is not a job to start on a Saturday.
We are not planners. What we will do is tell you when something looks like it needs checking before we quote it, rather than after we have started.
Weighted to what this postcode really needs, which is a fair bit more commercial and strata work than a typical North Shore suburb.
Federation and bungalow stock east of the line frequently still carries original or early-replacement wiring with no earthing. We stage rewires room by room, and plan cable routes around solid double brick before anything gets cut.
Electrical rewiringCeramic rewireable fuses are still common in the older streets, and 1960s and 70s strata boards are not far behind. Modern RCBOs give proper shock and fault protection and free up space for what comes next.
Switchboard upgradesWest Artarmon is full of ageing blocks. Common area switchboards, car park and stairwell lighting, emergency and exit light testing, intercoms, and honest advice on what a building’s rising mains will and will not support.
Strata electricianEvery business in the estate has an obligation to keep portable equipment and safety switches tested. We run scheduled testing for warehouses, workshops, studios and offices, with the paperwork to prove it.
Test & tagStructured cabling for office and studio fitouts in the estate, and hard-wired runs at home where thick double brick defeats another mesh node. On both, the cable route is most of the job.
Data cablingThe usual bottleneck when a house wants ducted air or a car charger, or when a tenancy in the estate outgrows its supply. Mains, metering and the point of attachment are Level 2 accredited work, which we hold.
Consumer mainsFrom the village shops beside the station to the studios on the other side of the freeway.
The Artarmon Conservation Area covers the older residential streets east of the railway line and south of Mowbray Road. It was recognised by the National Trust in 1989 and is protected through Willoughby City Council’s planning controls. If you are east of the line in a Federation or Californian bungalow, assume you are in it and check with Council before any external electrical work such as a meter box relocation, visible conduit or an air conditioning condenser.
Because the original installation was sized for lighting and a couple of power points, not an induction cooktop, ducted air conditioning and a car charger. The limiting factor is almost always the consumer mains and the switchboard rather than the appliance itself. We check the incoming supply and available capacity first, and upgrading mains or metering is Level 2 accredited work, which we carry out ourselves.
Yes. Much of west Artarmon was redeveloped to high-rise from the 1960s under the 1969 West Artarmon Residential Area Redevelopment Plan, so there is a large stock of older strata buildings here. We handle common property work: switchboards, rising mains, car park and common area lighting, emergency and exit light testing, intercom and data risers, and honest feasibility advice on EV charging in strata car parks.
Yes, and it is a solid part of what we do here. The estate south of the Gore Hill Freeway runs on three-phase supply and needs a different skill set to a house: distribution boards, machine and plant circuits, high-bay LED upgrades, tenancy fitouts, structured data cabling, and the test and tag and RCD testing that keeps a workplace compliant.
Attending your job is a chargeable callout. We confirm what it costs when you book, and the price for the work itself is agreed before we start, so there are no surprises on the invoice.
We are based in Castlecrag, a few minutes away across Willoughby. For small urgent jobs, call before 11am and we can usually be there the same day. Larger booked work is currently running about a week ahead.
Artarmon sits between Chatswood and St Leonards, so most of our neighbouring work is within a few minutes of the Pacific Highway.
Covering all 48 North Shore suburbs. See the full list of locations we service.
Upfront pricing, with the price agreed before we start. Call before 11am for same-day service.
