House washing and roof cleaning in Tarro

What do Tarro's post-war avenues need?

Early Tarro was scattered farms using the wetlands, with houses strung along Maitland Road. It became steadily more suburban after the Second World War, when the area bounded by Eastern, Western and Southern Avenues was subdivided. Its railway station, opened in 1857 on the Newcastle to Maitland line, is one of the oldest in Australia, and the suburb takes in 3.4 km of the Hunter River.

Houses on their own lots were 93.3% of Tarro's occupied homes in 2021, and 45.6% were owned outright. SafeWork NSW cautions that asbestos cement sheet, widely used from the 1940s to the late 1980s, must never be cleaned with high-pressure water, so post-war walls are washed at low pressure, and roofs get a soft wash.

Key figures

1857

the railway station opens

3.4 km

of the Hunter River inside the suburb

93.3%

of occupied dwellings were separate houses in 2021

Sources

• Wikipedia, Tarro
• ABS 2021 Census QuickStats, Tarro
• SafeWork NSW, Asbestos
• NSW Spatial Services, Administrative Boundaries (postcode, council, distance, neighbours)