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War Service Homes Precinct
Sydney Street and Coolamon Street and Gunnedah Street and Bazentin Street and Adelaide Street and Kamarooka Street ALBION, Brimbank City

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Brimbank City
45853 War Service Homes Precinct
45853 War Service Homes Precinct
45853 War Service Homes Precinct
45853 War Service Homes Precinct
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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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    • Physical Description 1

      War Service Homes Precinct - Physical Description 1

      The estate is composed of gabled roof simple Bungalow style weatherboard houses, of a very consistent form, with the majority of the houses still intact, although some with minor alterations. Most are well-preserved with some intrusions (new flats). The houses are formed around an unusual Garden City Movement-inspired Y-shape street pattern, some houses backing onto oblong, five-sided `Recreation Reserves' as common open spaces, as well as the circle at the intersection of Coolamon and Bazentin Streets.



      Apart from the internal commons there are some basalt-pitched drains and a lane, and small grassed reserves at the Kamarooka and Hamel Streets corner. The original plan has 4 small reserves of this type at the angles made by Sydney St to the Bazentin and Hamel Streets corners. The War Service Homes estate plan is reflected in the larger street pattern, which radiated from the eight-sided Selwyn Park, in a faceted street layout reminiscent of estates on the Mornington Peninsula created around the 1920s by Saxil Tuxen.



      Other war service estates were typically on a grid plan although, like this one, the houses shared architectural origins. The surviving contributory houses in the estate are as follows:



      ADDRESS, DESCRIPTIOM, DATE

      48 Adelaide Street, weatherboard war service home, 1920s-

      50 Adelaide Street, weatherboard war service home, 1920s-

      52 Adelaide Street, weatherboard war service home reclad, 1920s-

      54 Adelaide Street, weatherboard war service home altered with lily pilly in garden, 1920s-

      56 Adelaide Street, weatherboard war service home, 1920s-

      58 Adelaide Street, weatherboard war service home, 1920s-

      60 Adelaide Street, weatherboard war service home altered, 1920s-

      1 Bazentin Street, weatherboard war service home reclad, 1920s-

      2 Bazentin Street, weatherboard war service home reclad, 1920s-

      3 Bazentin Street, weatherboard war service home, 1920s-

      4 Bazentin Street, weatherboard war service home (has Metrosideros sp.), , 1920s-

      5 Bazentin Street, weatherboard war service home, 1920s-

      6 Bazentin Street, weatherboard war service home, 1920s-

      7 Bazentin Street, oiled unpainted weatherboard appears to be a reclad war service home, 1920s-?

      8 Bazentin Street, weatherboard war service home (well-preserved), 1920s-

      9 Bazentin Street, weatherboard war service home, 1920s-

      10 Bazentin Street, weatherboard war service home, 1920s-

      1 Coolamon Street, weatherboard war service home, 1920s-

      2 Coolamon Street, weatherboard war service home altered, 1920s-

      3 Coolamon Street, weatherboard war service home, 1920s-

      4 Coolamon Street, weatherboard war service home, 1920s-

      5 Coolamon Street, weatherboard war service home, 1920s-

      7 Coolamon Street, weatherboard war service home, 1920s-

      8 Coolamon Street, weatherboard war service home, 1920s-

      9 Coolamon Street, weatherboard war service home, 1920s-

      10 Coolamon Street, weatherboard war service home, 1920s-

      11 Coolamon Street, weatherboard war service home, 1920s-

      12 Coolamon Street, weatherboard war service home, 1920s-

      13 Coolamon Street, weatherboard war service home reclad with false brick cement panels, 1920s-

      14 Coolamon Street, weatherboard war service home, 1920s-

      16 Coolamon Street, weatherboard war service home, 1920s-

      1 Gunnedah Street, weatherboard war service home (1A = 1960s flats at rear of 2 Bazentin St.), 1920s-

      3 Gunnedah Street, weatherboard war service home altered, 1920s-

      5 Gunnedah Street, weatherboard war service home, 1920s-

      9 Gunnedah Street, weatherboard war service home, 1920s-

      11 Gunnedah Street, weatherboard war service home, 1920s-

      13 Gunnedah Street, weatherboard war service home, 1920s-

      15 Gunnedah Street, weatherboard war service home altered, 1920s-

      17 Gunnedah Street, weatherboard war service home, 1920s-

      4 Hamel Street, weatherboard war service home, 1920s-

      5 Hamel Street, weatherboard war service home, 1920s-

      6 Hamel Street, weatherboard war service home, 1920s-

      7 Hamel Street, weatherboard war service home, 1920s-

      8 Hamel Street, weatherboard war service home, 1920s-

      9 Hamel Street, weatherboard war service home, 1920s-

      2 Kamarooka Street, weatherboard war service home altered, 1910-20

      4 Kamarooka Street, weatherboard war service home altered, 1910-20

      6 Kamarooka Street, weatherboard war service home, 1910-20

      8 Kamarooka Street, weatherboard war service home, 1910-20

      10 Kamarooka Street, weatherboard war service home, 1910-20

      14 Kamarooka Street, weatherboard war service home, 1910-20

      16 Kamarooka Street, weatherboard war service home altered, 1910-20

      18 Kamarooka Street, weatherboard war service home, 1910-20

      41 Sydney Street, weatherboard war service home, 1910-20c

      43 Sydney Street, weatherboard war service home, 1910-20c



      The houses that have been demolished, replaced or so extensively been altered that they are no longer contributory are as follows:



      44-6 Adelaide Street, redeveloped block, 2000

      6 Coolamon Street, brick veneer - possibly reclad original?, 1960s

      7 Gunnedah Street, modern brick veneer, 1960s

      1 Hamel Street, modern unit development C2000), 2000

      2 Hamel Street, modern unit development C2000), 2000

      3 Hamel Street, modern brick veneer, 1990s

      12 Kamarooka Street, new brick veneer, 1960s

      39 Sydney Street, brick veneer units replacing former weatherboard bungalow

      45/45A Sydney Street - redeveloped, now two brick units.

      Physical Conditions

      War Service Homes Precinct - Physical Conditions

      (see description) Some new brick flats but houses generally have only superficial changes which could be reversed. Most houses have overpainting of the originally stained weatherboards.

      Historical Australian Themes

      War Service Homes Precinct - Historical Australian Themes

      4 Building settlement, towns and cities
      4.1 Planning urban settlements

      Heritage Study and Grading

      Heritage Study and Grading

      Brimbank - Brimbank City Council Post-contact Cultural Heritage Study

      Author: G. Vines
      Year: 2000
      Grading: Local

      Brimbank - Melbourne Western Region Industrial Heritage Study

      Author: G. Vines & A. Ward
      Year: 1989
      Grading:

Public contributions

Note: Developments may span multiple time periods
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