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House; 39 Sydney Street, ALBION
39 Sydney Street, ALBION VIC 3020
War Service Homes Precinct

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Brimbank City
39 Sydney Street.JPG
39 Sydney Street.JPG
39 Sydney Street.JPG
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Statement of Significance


Precinct statement of significance:
 
This Albion War Service Homes Estate is historically and architecturally significant to the Melbourne metropolitan area and the City of Brimbank for its combination of a uniform architectural house style (although generally altered in detail) and an uncommon garden city-inspired plan which was atypical for both war service and privately developed estates at that time. This was one of several soldier settlement estates set up in Australia after World War One, possibly one of the earliest. It is of particular interest because of the initiative taken by H.V. McKay in offering to sell his land to the War Service Homes Commission and as the first example of Commonwealth intervention in the provision of housing in the Sunshine area.



The simple gabled, weatherboard bungalow style houses are architecturally significant for their consistent form and design details, with characteristic wide eaves, steep pitched roofs and timber details such as eave and verandah brackets. While the houses are clearly designed and built to standard plans, the small variations, orientation to the allotments and subtly varied details indicate the attempts to create variety and avoid monotony in the designs.



The layout of the estate is distinctive and unusual with its small corner and central roundabout reserve, planted with a large palm, and the large reserves enclosed by back fences of the houses in a manner reminiscent of Walter Burley Griffin's pioneering town planning at Eaglemont and Avondale Heights.



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