City of Darebin Heritage Study Volume 1 Draft Thematic

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DAREBIN HERITAGE STUDY STAGE 2Preston Council, had written to the Commissioners ‘bringing under notice suitable areas forhousing’, for ‘workers in the expanding industries’.The Commission’s first contracts were let for the construction of houses in three estates inPreston - the Bell-Street Estate (Huttonham), Oakover-Road Estate and the Bailey-AvenueEstate - as well as estates in Brunswick and Fisherman’s Bend. In March 1939 theCommission purchased 10 acres for the Bell-Street Estate. This was also known as the‘Huttonham’ Estate as it was close to the Hutton’s factory, a potential employer of thebreadwinners of the families who would occupy the 84 houses planned. Building on the otherestates in Preston - Murray-Road, David-Street, Raglan-Street and May-Street - soon followedas a part of the Commission’s initiative to clear 1,178 houses identified by the HousingInvestigation and Slum Abolition Board in the inner suburbs before building activity wascurtailed by wartime demands on resources. (Howe, 1983:40; Housing Commission ofVictoria 2 nd Annual Report).The Commission also purchased a small site off Basting StreetNorthcote, where it built a small estate in the early 1940s creating what is now NewmarketStreet (Lemon, 1983:235, 256).Figure 10Housing Commission of Victoria estate,Newmarket Street, Northcote, 1949Photographer: Lyle Fowler[State Library of Victoria, An H92.20/2723,IN a39340]These estates were amongst the first constructed by the Commission and were being developedat the same time as estates in Brunswick and Fisherman’s Bend (Howe, 1983:40). Whilst theFisherman’s Bend estate remained the largest single venture, the Preston and Northcote estatesaccommodated a total of 416 new houses, being slightly more than the 412 at Fisherman’sBend.The Commission preferred larger areas, but when it attempted to buy the old racecourse atCroxton Park it met with the opposition of property developers and local residents concernedthat a Housing Commission estate would lower property values (Lemon, 1983:236). TheCommission had more success with the Newlands Estate built in 1943-1953 at the westernboundary of the former City of Preston. Newlands was one of the first large-scale estatesdeveloped by the Housing Commission as a precursor to the inner suburban high rise estates ofthe 1960s. It is one of the most extensive estates based on low to medium density housingpromoted by the British and American garden suburb and new town theorists. One of thestrongest elements of the scheme was the sense of community focus created by the shoppingcentre and primary school.The Commission’s activities were greatly accelerated after the war to meet housing shortagesand to accommodate the huge influx of European immigrants. Again the northern suburbswere its major focus. Undeveloped areas of Darebin Creek valley were ideal and HousingCommission estates were built on both sides, including the Olympic Village in WestHeidelberg (outside the study area) Large estates of houses and flats were built at Reservoir andEast Preston, and Merrilands, accommodating 10,000 people by 1966 (Carroll & Rule,1985:180) Although the Commission had plans to develop land further south along theDarebin valley in Northcote, for various reasons the plans were abandoned. The Housing30
VOLUME 2: THEMATIC ENVIRONMENTAL HISTORYCommission did build a number of apartment blocks in other parts of Northcote, including a“slum reclamation” area between Walker Street, High Street and Merri Creek, and the FrankWilkes Court for elderly tenants beside Northcote Park (Lemon, 1983:257, 266).War Service HomesAfter the First World War, due to the shortage of housing, the Commonwealth Governmentstepped in to assist returned soldiers and their families to buy affordable houses, through theWar Service Homes Commission, established in 1919. War Service Homes were intended bythe Government as “the counterpoint to the land settlement portion of the repatriation policy”(‘WSH Jubilee’, p.1), a policy commonly known as soldier settlement. Most of the assistancefor War Service Homes was given through low interest rate loans, but the Commission alsobuilt houses (VYB 1973, p.360). Initially the Commission intended to buy large tracts of landand contract builders to erect the houses, however due to difficulty engaging contractors andfinding sufficient material cheaply, the Commission was the builder for its first two years ofoperations. (‘WSH Jubilee’, p.4-7).Australia’s first War Service Homes were completed in the Sydney suburb of Canterbury inSeptember 1919 and Victoria’s first War Service Homes were constructed soon after in Preston(‘WSH Jubilee’, p.5). According to a report in the Preston Leader (11 October 1919), thesewere 60 houses on the Clifton Estate, just south of Bell Station. This area included Gertrude,Esther and Adeline Streets. The bricks used were from the nearby Clifton Brickworks, and thestone for the foundations came from the municipal quarry. These houses were commencedlate in 1919 and were occupied in 1920 (Rate Books). Other War Service Homes wereconstructed in Arthur, Bruce and Herbert Streets, Preston in the early 1920s. Later estates wereat Dwyer Avenue, West Preston and Leamington Street, Reservoir (Jones, 1994:106).State Bank housesThe State Bank of Victoria was established by 1912 when the Savings Banks Act (No.2365)provided for all Banks then operating under the Savings Banks Acts to be collectively namedThe State Savings Bank of Victoria. Services offered by the Bank included savings bankfacilities, special loans to discharged soldiers (from 1917), building homes for people of smallmeans (from 1920s), including the Garden City estate at Fisherman’s Bend and credit foncierfacilities including mortgage loans and sale of debentures. The credit foncier scheme was one ofthe first of many introduced in Australia over the first decades of the twentieth century andbecame known colloquially as the ‘cheap money’ scheme. By the 1920s the success of the creditfoncier scheme led to the Bank adding other loans on special conditions for lower incomeworkers and returned servicemen (Murray & White, 1992:207-17).A history of the Bank notes that:“One of the results of the new thrust into housing was that, to get the best combination of lowprices and high standards, the Bank effectively became a builder in its own right, issuingstandard designs and selecting building contractors for many of the houses it financed. A ‘Bankhome’ became an affordable goal, a symbol of achievement and recognition that the house wassolidly built. Such was the enthusiasm of Victorian workers for Bank-financed and built homesthat by the mid-1920s the Bank was the largest home builder in Victoria.” (Murray & White,1992:207-17)Most State Bank homes were built in the metropolitan area, and few were built in groups. It isthought that up to 7,500 were built, principally between 1921-30, then less until 1939. Allexcept 300 were in Melbourne and these mostly in the ring of suburbs: Brunswick, Coburg,Preston, Hawthorn, Kew, Ivanhoe, Heidelberg, Box Hill, Camberwell, Malvern, Oakleigh andBrighton (Murray & White, 1992:207-17).Tannery worker Ralph Underhill, and his fiancee Ruby bought a block of land in Preston inthe 1930s:31
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City of Darebin Heritage Study Volume 1 Draft Thematic

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