Broadly, Riversdale Road divides Hawthorn East into two building eras, and the era of your house decides a lot about your charger. North of the road, the railway arrived in 1882 and the streets were largely built up by the turn of the century, with trams following in 1916. South of it, subdivision dragged on into the interwar years, when houses started to be planned around the car. Our EV charger installation Hawthorn East quotes reflect that difference before they reflect anything else.
We work from our South Yarra premises at 128 Toorak Rd, about 5 km away, and hold Victorian registration as an electrical contractor, REC 35838. Our A-grade electricians fit chargers we supply or ones you have bought yourself.
EV charger installation Hawthorn East, north and south of Riversdale Road
Victorian Places describes Hawthorn East as the strip between Auburn Road and Burke Road, running from Barkers Road down to Gardiners Creek. Two of its primary schools tell the story of how it filled in: Auburn opened in 1890 and Auburn South in 1925. For the southern half, the same source says the houses are of interwar designs, reflecting the increasing acceptance of off-street space for motor cars.
That last line is good news for EV owners. A typical interwar house south of Riversdale Road was laid out with room for a car beside or behind it, so the charger often has an obvious home on a garage or carport wall. The older northern streets are a different job. A Victorian or Edwardian house built before cars were common may have no driveway at all, a meter box on the front wall and a long way to anywhere a car can park.
Honestly, the interwar streets in the south tend to be the easier ones for a home charger. The north takes more planning, but it is rarely a dead end.
Check which network you are on
In Hawthorn East the network question has two possible answers. Most of the suburb is CitiPower territory: the state’s Vicmap boundary data and CitiPower’s own network map both put about 96% of the suburb’s area in CitiPower’s network. The exception is a thin band at the southern end, around Toorak Road, which falls on the United Energy side of the boundary. CitiPower’s find your electricity distributor tool reflects this by listing both networks for the 3123 postcode.
The network affects the paperwork, not the safety standard. On CitiPower’s side, a change such as a single-phase to three-phase upgrade is an alteration that only a REC can lodge through CitiPower’s eConnect portal. On United Energy’s side, the installer of a wall charger must be a REC, and the charger must be registered with United Energy through myEnergy. We confirm your distributor before we lodge anything.
One more difference is worth knowing. CitiPower’s EV page does not publish a notification threshold for home chargers, while United Energy asks for every wall charger to be registered. So two neighbours either side of that southern boundary can buy the same charger and still end up with slightly different paperwork.
Heritage precincts from Victoria Road to Harts Parade
By our count from the state’s planning maps, roughly 29% of Hawthorn East’s land is inside a Heritage Overlay. The precincts cover both eras:
- Victoria Road Precinct (HO848), the largest, including Victoria Road, Lingwell Road, Lorne Road, Station Street and parts of Rathmines Road.
- Harcourt Street (HO151), Ryeburne Avenue (HO161) and Rathmines Grove (HO160) in the north.
- Longford Estate and Environs (HO844), taking in Currajong Road, Invermay Grove and Harts Parade. It sits just south of Riversdale Road, yet its statement of significance describes housing that is largely Victorian Italianate, with laneways giving rear access to properties.
- Stonyhurst and Athol Estates (HO846) around Fairmount Road and Miami Street, plus Essington Estate (HO845) and Smith’s Paddock (Burwood Reserve) Environs (HO843).
- Brickfields Environs (HO841), named for the area’s brickmaking past. Victorian Places notes that Fritsch Holzer Park and the Victoria Road Reserve were both once clay pits.
The overlay rule is the same in all of them. A charger needs a planning permit where it would be visible from a street (other than a lane) or a public park; outside an overlay, Clause 62.02-2 exempts a charging station from the usual buildings-and-works permit. Boroondara’s heritage and property development page explains how to check your property, and a planning property report from VicPlan lists any overlay that applies to the land.
In practice the carport is the tricky element. If a house in a precinct like Longford Estate has a carport beside it, a charger on the street-facing post may well be visible. Mounting it on the inside wall or further back usually keeps it out of view.
Two schedule details are easy to miss. Every precinct listed above has solar energy system controls switched on, so visible panels need a permit too, which matters if you plan to pair the charger with solar. And in the Stonyhurst and Athol Estates precinct, the schedule names particular garages on Fairmount Road, Miami Street and Tooronga Road among the outbuildings it specifically controls. If your garage is one of them, we treat its street face as off limits.
Apartments, townhouses and the Camberwell Junction edge
Almost half of Hawthorn East’s dwellings were flats or apartments at the 2021 Census (48.7%), and another 18.0% were semi-detached houses, row houses or townhouses. Close to 40% of households rented. Hawthorn East shares the Burke Road shopping strip with Camberwell, and Victorian Places notes an apartment tower completed in 2013 at the corner of Camberwell and Riversdale Roads, on the site of a former car yard.
Each building type has its own route to a charger:
- Apartments need the owners corporation on board, because cable crosses common property. Our apartment and strata EV charging work starts with a building assessment and the facts a committee needs before it votes.
- Townhouses on a shared driveway may also involve common property. We check the plan of subdivision before routing a cable along a shared wall or driveway.
- Shops and showrooms along Camberwell Road and Burke Road can look at our commercial EV charger installation options for staff or customer bays.
Choosing a charger for an interwar garage
For most houses here, a 7 kW single-phase wall charger is the sensible choice. By CitiPower’s figures, each hour on that charger adds about 30 to 40 km of range. A 22 kW unit needs a three-phase power upgrade if the house does not already have one, and it only charges faster if the car accepts that rate: Polestar’s Australian specification for the Polestar 2, for example, lists 11 kW three-phase AC charging. Unless the supply and the car can both use 22 kW, we would rather spend that money on a better cable route.
Garage size matters as well. In a narrow single garage, a tethered charger (one with its own cable) mounted near the door saves walking a loose cable around the car. In a wider garage or open carport, a socket-only unit works fine and keeps the wall tidy. About 40% of Hawthorn East households had two or more vehicles in 2021, so if a second EV is likely, we size the circuit and the board for it now.
What an installation looks like here
The sequence is predictable, even if the house is not. We ask for photos of the switchboard, the meter box and the parking spot, then visit to measure the cable route and check the network and overlay. You get a written quote that explains what drives the cost: cable length, switchboard condition, whether three-phase is needed, any trenching, and the charger model you choose.
Install day covers the dedicated circuit, the right safety switch (Type AC devices can no longer be fitted in new work), mounting and commissioning. After testing, you receive a Certificate of Electrical Safety. If your board is full or dated, our page on switchboard upgrades for EV chargers explains the fix.
Frequently asked questions about EV charger installation in Hawthorn East
Am I on CitiPower or United Energy in Hawthorn East?
Most likely CitiPower. Only a narrow band at the southern end, around Toorak Road, sits outside CitiPower’s mapped area, on United Energy’s side of the boundary. We confirm which one supplies your address before lodging any network paperwork.
Four townhouses share our driveway. Can each one have a charger?
Usually, yes. If each townhouse has its own meter and garage, each charger can run from that home’s board. If the cable has to cross shared land, the owners corporation needs to agree first, and we can provide a simple plan showing the route.
My house is in the Longford Estate precinct. Can the charger go on the carport?
It can, but the position matters. A charger visible from the street needs a planning permit in a Heritage Overlay, so we will usually suggest an inside wall of the carport or a spot further back that the street cannot see.
Almost half of Hawthorn East’s homes are apartments. Can our block get chargers?
Usually, once the owners corporation approves. We assess the building’s supply and switchboard, then recommend either chargers on each owner’s meter or a shared, load-managed system.
Do I need to tell CitiPower about a new charger?
CitiPower does not publish a home-charger notification threshold on its EV page. A change to the supply itself is different: moving from single-phase to three-phase is an alteration that a REC lodges through CitiPower’s eConnect portal, and the work needs a Certificate of Electrical Safety.
Will an interwar house need a switchboard upgrade?
Not necessarily. Some boards only need a new circuit and safety switch. Others have no room or still use old fuses and need replacing first. We tell you which after inspecting it.
Whether you are in an older house off Rathmines Road or an interwar home near Anderson Park, tell us about the house and where the car parks through our contact page, or call 1300 003 853, Monday to Saturday, 7am to 7pm. For the suburb to the west, see our page on EV charger installation in Hawthorn.