Colorbond is the most common steel fence in Australian backyards. Most homeowners pay between $130 and $190 per metre inc GST installed, depending on height, ground conditions and whether an old fence has to come out first.
Typical installed cost: $130 to $190 per metre inc GST
1.5m high Colorbond, flat block: $130 to $150 /m. Standard suburban boundary run
1.8m high Colorbond, flat block: $145 to $170 /m. The most popular height
2.1m high Colorbond: $170 to $195 /m. Extra rail and taller posts
Sloping or rocky ground: add 10 to 20%. Stepped panels and harder digging
Old fence removal and disposal: from $550 total. Minimum charge applies
Single pedestrian gate: $600 to $950. Frame, hardware and latch included
Double driveway gate: $1,400 to $2,600. Wider frames and heavier hardware
Colorbond fence cost in Melbourne
Melbourne pricing sits close to the national average, but two local factors push jobs around. First, a lot of inner suburbs like Brunswick, Northcote and Yarraville have narrow rear laneways and no truck access, so materials get carried in by hand and labour hours climb. Second, the basalt and clay through the west and north can turn a straightforward post hole into a jackhammer job.
For a standard 1.8m Colorbond run on a flat suburban block with side access, most Melbourne homeowners land between $145 and $170 per metre inc GST installed. A typical 22 metre backyard boundary comes in around $3,200 to $3,700 with no removal, or roughly $3,800 to $4,300 once an old timber fence has to be pulled out and taken away.
Bayside and Mornington Peninsula jobs sit a little higher because coastal grade materials are worth the extra, and because sandy ground needs deeper or wider footings to hold posts properly.
What is actually in the price
Materials are usually 40 to 50 percent of a Colorbond job. That covers sheets, top and bottom rails, posts, plinths if you need them, and concrete for footings. The rest is labour: setting out the line, digging and concreting posts, letting footings go off, then fitting rails and sheets.
The line item most people forget is disposal. An old fence is heavy, the tip charges by weight, and broken concrete footings are the worst of it. That is why removal carries a minimum charge rather than a per metre rate.
Anything that stops the job from being one clean run adds cost too: a corner, a step down a slope, an existing retaining wall, a tree in the fence line, or a service pit you cannot dig near.
Colorbond vs timber vs aluminium on price
Timber paling is generally the cheapest per metre at $120 to $180, but it needs staining and the posts are the first thing to fail at ground level. Colorbond sits at $130 to $190 and needs essentially nothing for twenty years. Aluminium slat is the premium option at $225 to $320 and is chosen for looks more than budget.
Over twenty years, Colorbond usually works out cheaper than timber once you count re-staining every three to five years and a mid-life post repair. If you are selling within a couple of years, timber is the lower upfront number.
How to keep the cost down
Do the whole boundary in one visit rather than staging it. Setup, travel and minimum labour get spread across more metres, and the per metre rate drops.
Talk to your neighbour before you book. In most Australian states a shared boundary fence at a standard height is a shared cost, so splitting it can halve your bill.
Clear the fence line yourself. Cutting back shrubs, moving pots and pulling up the old lattice before the crew arrives saves labour hours you would otherwise pay for.
Stick to standard heights and colours. Custom colours and non-standard heights carry both a material premium and a lead time.
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