Why Are Australian Door Knobs So High? Easy Explanation 

If you ever visit Australia, you’ll notice that older Australian houses have higher doorknobs than usual, where the usual doorknob height ranges from 900mm to 1100mm (according to Australian Standard 1428.1). But why so? This matter keeps many people baffled and they want to know the reason out of enormous curiosity. 

Some say it’s because Australians are taller than other nationalities. Others say the reason is connected to the country’s history and cultural evolution as the presence of high doorknobs in most old residences suggests that the matter is actually related to the age of the door.

Read the entire post to explore the mystery of Australian high doorknobs.

Reasons Behind Australian Door Knobs Are Unusually High

First of all, it should be clarified that it has no relevance to the height of the Australians, rather the second opinion is most likely to be the answer. Meaning it’s associated with the evolution of time. It has been found that most Australian houses that were built before World War 2 have doorknobs placed one-third from the door’s top. Nobody knows the actual reason but this is the point. 

Here, different groups of people come with different opinions. Some say that it was to make sure that the children couldn’t get outside the house unnoticed as the war was going on out there. Some others say it was actually more of a trend. They believe it all started in the middle of 1800 when Australia’s population started to increase rapidly and the number of immigrants also got high. 

Therefore, builders and architects started thinking about new and innovative ways to construct houses that would accommodate the increased population. Based on those innovative ways, they started placing doorknobs in a higher position to make the design ergonomic and door operation convenient, and the height remains around 1440mm.

Not only doorknobs, but you can even notice more portions that are positioned comparatively high. For example – picture rails, dado, ceilings, etc. So in short, it can be said that the older Australian doorknobs are so high due to the cultural or historical evolution over time. 

Frequently Asked Questions and Answers (FAQs)

What size are doors in Australia?

The average door size in Australia is 820mm (width) x 2040mm (height), where a standard internal door’s width ranges from 530mm to 920mm and height ranges from 2040mm to 2340mm. And when it comes to double doors, the height remains the same at a minimum, but the width becomes double. 

What is the preferable height of doorknobs?

It’s recommended to place the doorknobs at 34 inches high from the finished floor. The simple reason is it suits most people as the doorknob is comfortably placed around the waist area. But keep in mind that don’t install the doorknobs higher than 48 inches as it’s an unusual place for doorknobs that most likely won’t feel much cozier.

Conclusion

Now that you’ve read this far, it’s pretty assumable that you have an overall concept about the Australian doorknobs placing higher than usual height. Those reasons are the most conventional and there’s a higher chance that any of the reason is the exact one in this case. Now if you have further questions regarding it or want to share any different reason that you know about this, feel free to knock us in the comment section.