Timber Picket Fence Melbourne

Every picket fence is the same construction: pickets nailed to two rails between posts, with the gaps left open. What makes one look right on a Victorian terrace and wrong on a 1970s brick veneer is the profile of the picket top, the spacing between pickets, and the height. Pointed tops are the Victorian and Federation default; a rounded top is Edwardian and interwar; a flat or dog-eared top is mid-century and suits a plainer house. Spacing runs from a tight 40mm gap that reads as a solid fence to a 75mm gap that reads as a picket fence. Height is where the rules come in: most Melbourne councils allow a front fence up to 1.2 metres without a permit, and 1.5 metres on a main road. Above that, or on a corner where sightlines matter, you are into a permit. In a heritage overlay, the council will usually expect a fence that matches the era and height of the house and the neighbouring fences, which in practice means a pointed or rounded picket at 1.0 to 1.2 metres, painted.