House, 36 Gilmore Avenue, Medina

Parent Place or Precinct

17306 Medina Townsite

Values

• The place is an early residence constructed as part of Medina, a government housing suburb established in 1953 by the State Housing Commission to support growing industrial development in the Kwinana area.
• The single-storey timber building is an example of a State Housing Commission residence built to a standard plan.

Physical Description

A single-storey timber-framed residence with a tiled roof and brick chimney, the residence is located at the north-east boundary of the Medina townsite. The building is externally clad with weatherboard and asbestos sheeting, with timber flooring raised on timber stumps. A carport is at the southwest elevation. The front porch is raised and accessible via timber steps.

The internal layout includes two bedrooms, kitchen and dining room, living room with fireplace, and bathroom. The roof form extends into a skillion at the rear, containing the laundry and water closet, sleepout, and verandah.

The building faces a grassed road reserve along the dual-carriageway Gilmore Avenue. The residences along the north-east facing streetscape between Bromwell Crescent and Heald Road include a range of construction types including timber-framed and asbestos sheeting and brick and tile built between 1953-1965. There are two verge trees in front of the residence which continues along the streetscape.

History

Medina is located on the traditional lands of the Whadjuk Noongar people. Important Noongar camping, hunting, and gathering sites are within the Kwinana locality, including the limestone ridge Chalk Hill, which was used as a location signal. The area is part of a trail of freshwater lakes and natural springs along the greater metropolitan coastal strip, used by Noongar people for hunting and gathering. This traditional way of life was severely disrupted with the arrival of settlers to the Swan River Colony from 1829 onward.

The area chosen from Medina was part of Thomas Smirks’ landholdings, used by the Smirk family for farming from the 1850s. The area was partly resumed with the development of Medina with the c.1902 Smirk Cottage retained.

From the 1950s and 1960s, while the suburb was being developed by the State Housing Commission, Aboriginal families camped at Chalk Hill and Thomas Oval. Many families who camped at Chalk Hill continue to live in Medina.

The following section is drawn from the report A Consideration of Medina as a Representation of Post-World War Two Government Housing prepared by Clare Menck, Historian, June 2016.

The State government made efforts to encourage and support industrial development in the years following World War II. In 1952, the Oil Refinery (Anglo-Iranian Oil Co., Ltd) Act was passed, initiating an oil refinery at Kwinana operated by the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company (later British Petroleum, or BP). The State Housing Commission (SHC) would build a neighbouring suburb to house the refinery workers, which became Medina. Government provision of housing and infrastructure was an important factor in the establishment of Kwinana as an industrial precinct. The oil refinery attracted the interest of other industries in the area with BHP opening a steel mill in 1956 and ALCOA an alumina refinery in 1963-64.

Construction began in Medina in early 1953 in the northern streets. Designed by town planner Margaret Feilman, Medina was laid out using Garden City principles, with extensive public parklands and green buffers between residential and industrial zones. The SHC had used these principles when establishing two other housing estates, Wundowie (from 1943) and Hurlingham Estate South Perth (1945-46).

The majority of Medina was built under three years. The first 35 houses were handed to BP in May 1953 and by June 1954, 641 houses and a central shopping precinct had been completed. Construction had mostly ceased by 1955 with 653 houses for BP, and another 145 houses under other SHC programs. The suburb accounted for 17% of the SHC’s total housing for 1953-54. Most of the housing was timber-framed, clad in predominantly fibre cement sheeting with some weatherboard, though brick homes were built for managerial staff of BP and BHP in southeast streets from the mid-1950s.

Industry at Kwinana had not developed as rapidly as expected and many SHC homes were unoccupied. By the late 1950s, the homes constructed for and managed by BP were being handed back to the government. The SHC subsequently began selling its rental properties to eligible occupant tenants. Though when BP announced an expansion of the refinery in 1960, the SHC initiated a new round of housing construction and by 1966, a further 920 houses were built in greater Kwinana.

The majority of SHC homes were intended for families, but at least two Kwinana companies provided hostels for single men which made up most of the workforce. Most workers and residents were migrants from Britain and continental Europe. Aboriginal families who were camping at Chalk Hill were allocated housing from the 1960s.

The Kwinana industrial area was further reinvigorated in the mid-1960s with the Pilbara mining boom. New suburbs Orelia and Parmelia were established by the SHC, also designed by Margaret Feilman, but a lot of the residences were built by private developers. The SHC constructed two or three storey flats and apartments, townhouses, and duplexes in Medina during this period.

In the 1990s, the SHC began redeveloping its existing estates and reduced its holdings, shifting towards private home ownership in formerly high rental areas. This occurred in Kwinana and Lockridge, and the northern portion of Medina. There were nine residences built by the SHC in Medina between 1952-1956 still owned by the Department of Housing in 2014 (now Department of Housing and Works).

36 Gilmore Avenue was built 1953 based on the SHC Timber Framed House Type standard plan 24A. Aerial imagery shows the majority of Gilmore Avenue had been developed by that year, including this residence. It is not known who the first tenant was, though it is possible this property was originally managed by BP after being built by the SHC, and the tenant an employee at the oil refinery, before being returned back to the SHC. The property has since been used for government housing, with the most recent tenant reportedly at the property since c.1970s.

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