State Housing Commission Group

Child Places

• 23638 House, 89 Gladstone Road
• 23649 8 Houses, 38-46 & 50-54 Surrey Road, Rivervale

Statement of Significance

The precinct has historic value as one of the first areas developed for public housing through government policy. The precinct has social and historic value for the members of the community who resided in State housing, including new migrants and ex servicemen

Physical Description

The precinct is bound by Orrong Road, Acton Avenue, Roberts Road and Newey Street. This portion of the suburb of Rivervale is a formal grid road layout that is fully developed, predominantly with single storey residences. From a comparison of the survey of the current aerial photograph to surveys from the 1950s there appears to be only a relatively small percentage of housing that date from the original development of the area located in the south west corner of the designated precinct. There are no significant clusters of houses to demonstrate cohesive streetscapes of the original development. This original housing which remain from the late 1940s development is typically single storey with pitched roofs with simple facades, generally centrally placed doors with windows on either side. Front entry porches are common. The material choices are varied with roofs or tile and corrugated iron, and walls of brick, rendered brick or fibre cement sheeting. The housing blocks are of a uniform size and shape and typically 706m2 or 0.17 of an acre. The houses have uniform setbacks and large back yards, with carports typically later additions. Many have well established gardens with mature trees.

History

From 1912, the State Government Workers’ Homes Board, provided finance schemes to assist low-income workers into home ownership. Depression condition in the 1930s led to the formation of the McNess Housing Trust to provide homes for the very poor. By the 1940s, Australia was desperately short of housing and as a result, the Commonwealth intervened with funding for government rental housing, the beginning of ‘public housing’ particularly for Returned Servicesmen. The State Housing Commission (SHC) replaced the Workers’ Homes Board in 1946 under the State Housing Act. The Act enabled the resumption of land for government housing and one large parcel was secured in the future suburb of Rivervale (listed as Belmont in early Workers Home Board/State Housing Commission statistics). Large numbers of houses were subsequently constructed in the post-war decade, including whole new suburbs of government housing which included a mix of rental and purchse-scheme homes. These government housing estates continued to be constructed through to the early 1980s. Government housing began as free-standing family homes. In the post-war years, duplexes and then small groups of flats emerged, as the client base was expanded to include smaller family units and aged persons. From the late 1950s, the rate of medium-density government housing increased and by the late 1960s a small amount of high density housing had even been constructed. Development at Rivervale began in 1945-46 following seven other schemes in metropolitan Perth. The first Rivervale SHC subdivision was bounded by Chamberlain Road (now Macey Close and Chamberlain Road), Acton Avenue, Roberts Road and Orrong Road. By April 1950, the Rivervale housing project was nearing completion with houses completed on Acton Avenue, and St Kilda, Toorak, Fitzroy, Kooyong, Armadale, Norwood, Surrey, Orrong and Gladstone Roads. The houses in this area were all of weatherboard, asbestos and tile, to designs by the Department of Housing. Although the houses were similar in design and scale the exteriors were given some variety in detail and painted according to a range of colour schemes to add to streetscape interest. This subdivision was soon followed by adjacent developments. The northern portion of this precinct bound by Acton Avenue, Newey Street, Orrong Road and Chamberlain Macey Roads must have followed soon after the initial Rivervale development as a 1953 aerial photography shows this section almost fully developed. It can be seen in this aerial photograph that the lots of this later subdivision, closer to Great Eastern Highway are smaller than the first Rivervale subdivision. Initially there were limited facilities and services with no primary school or shops. By the early 1960s, the majority of the area was developed. In recent decades the area has been in transition with many of the State Housing Commission homes demolished and new larger homes or unit developments constructed. A brief survey of the area using aerial photographs indicates that this later subdivision with the smaller lots is where the majority of the original housing remains.

Integrity/Authenticity

Integrity: Low Authenticity: Low

Condition

Good

Uses

Historic Themes

Creation Date

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