An aerial photo of a mega housing estate on the outskirts of Melbourne has left Aussies stunned.

The photo of Mickleham, just under an hour’s drive north of the Victorian capital’s CBD, was taken by a traveller flying over the town last month.

The “depressing” image showed rows of hundreds of near-identical townhouses with matching black roofs sandwiched on top of each other.

The suburb has experienced a population explosion in recent years as young families priced out of inner-city Melbourne seek more affordable housing.

But experts have condemned the “absurd” scene, warning residents in the area about the looming cost of living crisis that faces them amid worsening heatwaves each summer.

An aerial photo of Mickleham – dubbed Australia’s fastest growing suburb – has enraged Aussies and left experts fuming. Picture: Reddit

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Dr Sebastian Pfautsch, an expert in urban planning and management at Western Sydney University, said the image of Mickleham left him feeling “angry and hopeless”.

“Angry because of the continued ignorance of builders and those that approve the new settlements. Hopeless because it is obvious that homeowners don’t care either,” he told news.com.au.

Professor Pfautsch said he was stunned builders were “making the same (design) mistakes” that had been repeated for decades in Australia.

“Badly insulated, single-glazed, black roofed, entirely unshaded homes will rely entirely on airconditioning at any outdoor temperature above 28 to 30C,” he said.

“They become very expensive to operate in summer. In the cost-of-living crisis today, people already make decisions between food on the table or running the airconditioning.

“Imagine what these families will endure in 20 to 30 years.”

Topping the “absurdity”, he said, was that many of the homes likely featured front and back yards made from plastic.

Urban planner Sam Austin agreed, questioning why developers continued to create housing unsuitable for the extreme temperature swings faced by communities in regional Aussie cities.

“It makes sense to have black roofs, no back yards, minimal tree cover when it snows for three months of the year, and is cold and wet for another three months,” Mr Austin told news.com.au

“But in a country where climate change is regularly creating 40C+ heatwaves in our cities – not so much.”

Mr Austin said the style of development in Mickleham – which is also causing issues in Sydney’s western suburbs – was “incredibly frustrating”.

“The sprawling style of urban sprawl makes it very difficult to provide effective community facilities, open spaces and the green network we need to create liveable communities,” he said.

He pointed to a recent study by the NSW Productivity Commission which found it cost twice as much to build the basic infrastructure needed to service a sprawling suburb like Mickleham compared to the equivalent within the inner-city.

“When you start factoring in these costs, it’s no wonder the facilities are lacking,” he said.

Experts fear young families who choose to live in new suburbs such as Mickleham will face a cost of living crisis as they battle to cool their homes in the summer. Picture: Reddit

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Environment expert Paul Osmond has also been critical of an influx of new suburbs designed with an abundance of concrete, asphalt and roofing without appropriate trees and open spaces.

“It’s not just the dark roofs, but it’s the closeness of the buildings, the lack of green open space, the lack of trees,” the UNSW professor told Yahoo News earlier this year.

He explained that dark-coloured roofs and roads “absorbed” the heat and contributed to “what’s known as the urban heat island effect.”

“You cannot live in an environment like this, particularly with increased duration, increased frequency and increased intensity of heatwaves, which is what we’re going to be seeing with climate change,” he told the publication.

“People will be stuck indoors. They’ll be using air conditioners if they can afford to pay for it. But they will pump indoor heat back outdoors and that can increase the heat by one and a half to two degrees if everybody’s got an air conditioner.”

Professor Pfautsch said it was a “million-dollar question” as to why builders continued to stick with black roofs in new Aussie estates.

“Ignorance, stupidity, ‘that’s the way we do it here’, ‘it’s chic, trendy, modern’,” he suggested as potential reasons for the design choice.

“It has been in the media for more than 10 years now and nothing has changed. So, I settle for ignorance by builders and owners.”

Professor Pfautsch wrote about this unwillingness to change in a piece for The Conversation.

“State governments could, at a stroke, penalise dark roofs and give incentives for light-coloured roofs. Scaled up, it would help keep our cities cooler as the world heats up. But outside South Australia, it’s just not happening,” he wrote.

The issue is not isolated to Melbourne. Suburbs such as The Ponds (above), in Sydney’s west, have also faced heavy criticism. Picture: X

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Aussies erupt over picture

The person who took the photo of Mickleham described the sight as a “depressing welcome” on the approach to Melbourne, prompting outrage from other Aussies.

One person who lived in the area complained it was 21C outside and 26C inside their house. “What the actual f***. It’s a sauna,” they wrote.

Another who lived in the area said the real issue was the lack of infrastructure.

The town has one shopping centre with a Coles supermarket, bottle shop, bakery and chemist. A high school opened its doors to students at the beginning of 2023.

“(There’s) nowhere for young people to hang out,” they wrote.

“No street life or community and the stripping down of humanity to living a chicken farm type existence all because of American style corporate domination.”

“You forgot ‘one road in and out to major highway that is gridlocked for 50 per cent of every day’,” complained another, pointing out the town had no public transport connecting it to Melbourne.

Some argued Mickleham – which was dubbed Australia’s fastest growing suburb in 2021 – needed time for trees to grow and town resources to be built.

The suburb had just over 3,000 residents in 2016.

The latest Census in 2021 showed it had a population of 17,452 with that number forecast to grow to 61,000 by 2046.

“Less than ten years ago, this was all farm land … In another ten years’ time, this will be just like any other green suburb in Melbourne,” countered one social media user.

That social media user rejected criticism of the black roof design, arguing Victorians used more energy heating their homes in winter than they do cooling them in summer.

“I would much rather a house that was a few degrees hotter all year round, especially if it had rooftop solar and split system airconditioning,” they wrote..

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