Post WWI were boom years for building
suburban houses that were detached and provided a yard for relaxation and
family pursuits.
The popular style was the Californian
bungalow, a style readily adopted into Australia from the USA from 1913
onwards. They provided an excellent
standard of accommodation within a single storey and incorporated a verandah
beneath a gabled roof.
An important change which was to have
lasting ramifications came to Concord in the time between the end of World War
I and the onset of World War II. It was
during this period that many of the old landed estates were subdivided and sold
for building blocks.
Most significant was the subdivision of the
greater part of the Walker estate which encompassed much of present day North
Strathfield and Concord West. However,
scattered around the municipality were many other parcels of land, large and
small, which were also opened up for development.
The main factors responsible for Concord’s
rapid recovery from the depression was the improvement in transport services,
roads, sewerage and drainage facilities, due to work carried out by relief
workers and government allocations of finance for public works.
Industrial expansion on Hen & Chicken
Bay and Homebush Bay-West Concord area enhanced the prospects for local
employment which encouraged more builders to the area.
By 1920 Concord was ready for subdivision
and development. The ferry service still
existed and the public transport system provided adequate service by rail and
tram. The motor car was becoming
increasingly common. Concord’s earlier
isolation and particularly the large amount of its land that had been tied up
in the Walker estate, meant that extensive tracts were still available for
development.
Moreover, by 1920 home ownership had become
more accessible than ever before to those of modest means.
The Commonwealth War Service Home
Commission, formed in 1918 to repay society’s debt to its servicemen and
overcome the desperate shortage of housing after World War I, built homes for
ex-servicemen who wanted to achieve the Australian dream of a family home set
on a suburban block of land.
Calibornian Bungalows – Five Dock
These houses were built in 1925 by John
Hood at the corner of Lyons Road West and Scott Street, Five Dock. John Hood is standing at the front gate of
the second house. Hood was born in
Ayrshire, Scotland in 1884, arrived in Australia in 1912 and died in 1937. He was a builder and served as an Alderman on
Drummoyne Council 1922-1925.
A gentleman supplies me with some very interesting particulars as to Mr. Charles Hamilton Nichols, one of the proprietors of “Bell’s Life” at the time of Professor Anderson’s conundrum prize-drawing. Mr. Nichols was one of the sons of Isaac Nichols, first Postmaster of New South Wales, and another of whose sons was George Robert Nichols, solicitor and barrister. At least he had the privilege of…
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On 11 December 1920, the town clerk of the Municipality of Concord wrote to the Board of Fire Commissioners of New South Wales requesting assistance to form a local voluntary fire brigade. Town Clerk, H. A. Furness, stated that: “At last meeting of the Council of this Municipality I was directed to ask you that…
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