Colorbond vs Timber Fencing in Adelaide: Cost, Neighbours and the Fences Act

Boundary fencing is the one outdoor project that comes with a mandatory business partner: your neighbour. So this guide covers both questions you're really asking — which fence, and who pays.

Cost per metre, installed (Adelaide 2026)

Fence type	Installed cost per metre	Typical life
Timber paling (1.8 m)	$95–$140	15–25 years
Colorbond (1.8 m)	$110–$160	25–35 years
Capped & stained timber	$160–$240	20–30 years
Aluminium/timber slat screen	$280–$450+	25+ years

Old fence removal and disposal typically adds $15–$30 per metre — worth confirming it's in any quote you compare.

Which lasts longer on your ground

Colorbond is termite-immune, rot-immune, identical on both sides (no "good side" negotiation), and steps cleanly down slopes. Its weaknesses: dents from impacts, and it turns a windy boundary into a solid sail — on exposed Hallett Cove or Seacliff streets, engineering the posts matters more than the panel brand.

Timber paling remains the value option and takes screening plants beautifully. In damp, shaded side yards on Adelaide's winter-wet clay, un-capped palings and posts work hardest; posts set shallow or in dry-mix concrete are why most leaning Adelaide fences lean. (Ours go a third of height in the ground, in wet-mixed concrete, every time.)

Slat screens are the premium, street-facing choice — more architecture than fencing.

Who pays: the Fences Act 1975 (SA)

For a boundary fence, the default position is that neighbours share equally the cost of a "sufficient" dividing fence. The process that makes it enforceable:

1. Serve a Form 1 notice (notice of intention to erect a fence) with a description and a quote — we format quotes so they attach straight to it;
2. Your neighbour has 30 days to object or counter-propose;
3. No response generally means you may proceed and recover half the cost of the sufficient fence;
4. Want something fancier than sufficient (slats where palings would do)? You pay the difference — the neighbour's share is calculated on the sufficient option.

Practical advice from hundreds of fence lines: the Form 1 exists for disputes, but a knock on the door with two written quotes settles 90% of fences faster and more pleasantly. Start there; keep the Form 1 in reserve.

Retaining + fence combinations

On sloped boundaries the fence often stands on a retaining wall, and that changes both the engineering (posts extend through or mount to the wall) and the cost conversation — retaining is generally the responsibility of whoever benefits from the level change, while the fence on top follows fencing rules. It pays to build both as one job with one contractor accountable for the lot.