House

Parent Place or Precinct

25394 Union and Redfern Heritage Area

Statement of Significance

The Union and Redfern Street Heritage Area is significant for:
Aesthetic Value:
The area contains aesthetically pleasing streetscapes with a strong heritage character. In particular, cohesive streetscapes have been created by a limited palette of materials and styles.
The area contains many good, representative, suburban examples of Federation Queen Anne houses and Federation Bungalows. These include both gentlemen’s villas and modest suburban houses, and collectively illustrate a gradual evolution in architectural detailing of these places between 1899 and the early Inter-war years.
Historic Value:
The residential subdivision of this area represents the early development activities of Sydney and Melbourne based real estate agents and property developers. In this context it helps to illustrate the status of Western Australia as a place of opportunity during the gold rush era of the late nineteenth century – attracting significant interest and investment from the eastern states.
The collection of houses in the heritage area helps to demonstrate the manner in which the family residences of professional men and business owners (such as senior civil servants and merchants) existed side by side with the smaller houses of semi-professional and tradespeople.
The collection of houses in the heritage area helps to illustrate the scale and standard of housing considered appropriate for these families in the early twentieth century.
The area was a place of residence for a number of people who were prominent in the local business community or were otherwise public identities of the early to mid-twentieth century.

Physical Description

11 Redfern Street was designed as a very modest weatherboard cottage.
Key elements include:
• Symmetrical façade.
• Hipped roof clad with corrugated metal sheeting.
• Traditional square-edged weatherboards to the east (side) elevation.
• Flat fibrous cement sheeting to the north (front) and west elevation (replacing the original weatherboards).
• Stained timber dado to the main facade.
• Full-width, raked verandah roof, supported on plain, square timber posts.
• Centrally located entrance door (with no highlight or sidelights)
• Paired casement windows to either side of the main entrance.
The house is set approx. 2.5m back from the front boundary, which is defined by a low square timber picket fence capped by a plain timber rail.
Based on a streetscape inspection the building appears to be in fair-good condition.

History

A Certificate of Title for Perth Suburban Lot 256 was issued in the name of The Intercolonial Investment Land and Building Company Ltd of Sydney NSW on 22 August 1890. This was bounded by Hamersley Road to the north, Hensman Road to the west and Heytesbury Road to the south. In June 1896 the whole of this property was transferred to James Thomas Peet and Austin Bastow of Melbourne, Estate Agents, and by August of that year Peet and Bastow had subdivided this as Deposited Plan 938, with Lots 25 to 30 along the northern side of Beryl Street (later renamed Redfern Street) and Lots 31 to 36 along the southern side.
The unsold portion of the subdivision (including Lot 31) was transferred to Austin Bastow’s wife, Mary Ann Bastow, in January 1899.

Integrity/Authenticity

Note: The replacement of the weatherboards to the north and west elevations with fibrous cement sheeting, and the addition of a stained dado to the north elevation, has diminished the authenticity of the place. However, the original design can still be readily understood.
Note: The place also has some historical significance as evidence of the early working-class nature of Subiaco, while the contrast it provides with its neighbours illustrates the duality of the area - with speculative housing for the working classes being erected in close proximity to more substantial houses:
The district originally was mainly a working man's suburb, but the advantage it held out to the city worker precluded its ever being a one-class town, and it was invaded by business and professional men, civil servants, and others, who desired to be in close proximity to their daily work. (The West Australian in 1928)
In the Electoral Roll of 1906 William Convine was listed as a ‘Contractor’ of Hensman Road, Subiaco (living with his wife, Mary Jane Convine). In January of that year an M. Convine of Redfern Street, Subiaco, advertised six houses for sale:
FOR Sale, 4-roomed Villa, conveniences, Hensman-road. £320, cash or terms. Three do., Rowland-st. £.270, or terms. Two do., Redfern-street, £150 or terms; all near school. M. Convine, Redfern-st., Subiaco.
The first two houses identified in the Post Office Directories for the whole of Redfern Street were Nos 11 and 12 (which were both listed in 1907). Of these, William Convine is known to have owned No. 11 in 1907/08, when he was listed in the Subiaco Rates Books as the owner of a house with an improved value of £150, which had been constructed and rented out at that address. (Note: Convine did not own 12 Redfern Street and the location of the second house advertised for sale has not been determined).
By 1907 William Convine was working as a miner in Cue (which had also been his occupation and place of residence in 1904). Given his stated occupation in 1906 (and the above advertisement) it seems likely that Convine had constructed a number of houses as speculative developments in Subiaco in the period c.1905.
William’s wife, Mary Jane Convine, returned to live in Perth in c.1918 and was listed in the Rates Book of 1918/19 as the owner of 11 Redfern Street (and was still listed as the owner in the Subiaco Rates Book of 1929/30). From the time of its construction through until at least the mid-twentieth century, the house was used as a rental property, with the occupants changing every 1-4 years.
Occupants of the property from its time of construction until 1949 included:
1907 James Morfesse (labourer) and his wife, Ruth
Note: Ruth Morfesse (nee Miller) was the daughter of Annie Wilson (formerly Miller), who lived opposite at 12 Redfern Street.
1908 Harry Thompson (painter)
1909 Mrs Lucy Campbell
1910-1911 No listing
1912 Mrs Kavanagh
1913 Mrs J Hubber
1914 Charles Augustus Smith (railways employee)
1915 James Kenny
1916 Mr M Casey
1916-1919 Thomas Henry Wallace (labourer)
1920-1922 Mrs E Nomus
1923-1925 Florence Isabell Baker (home duties) and William Thomas Baker (labourer)
1926-1927 Herbert Seaton
1928-1929 Mrs Ellen Cuff
c.1930-1931 Denis Hill Gidman (labourer) and Gertrude Annie Gidman
1931-1932 Mrs Isabella Davey
1933-1935 Allan Alfred Tillotson (plasterer)
1936-1937 Lesley Egerton White (labourer) and Evelyn May White
1938-1939 Mrs Florence Hankins & Mrs Gladys George
1940-1941 Richard Hales (labourer)
1942-1946 Alfred J Moss
1947-1949 Clifford Herbert Collins (no profession stated) and Elise Louise Marie Collins

Condition

Good

Uses

Creation Date

Publish place record online (inHerit):

Last Update

Disclaimer

This information is provided voluntarily as a public service. The information provided is made available in good faith and is derived from sources believed to be reliable and accurate. However, the information is provided solely on the basis that readers will be responsible for making their own assessment of the matters discussed herein and are advised to verify all relevant representations, statements and information.