National Trust of Australia (NSW)

Suburbia

A Conference
25 February 2002

Date and Venue

Suburbia will be held at the National Trust Centre and S. H. Ervin Gallery at Observatory Hill in Sydney on Monday 25 February 2002 with tours of suburban areas of Sydney on the Saturday and Sunday 23 and 24 February 2002. The conference will be followed by a dinner cruise on the HMAV Bounty.

Pre-Conference Tours

Saturday Tours - $25/day (incl. lunch)

Fairfield and Canterbury
The tour will begin at the National Trust Centre at Observatory Hill. Buses will depart at 9.00.

Fairfield
Tune into Fairfield City: A Multicultural Driving Tour,

Premier Bob Carr’s introduction to the tour:
‘Migration has helped shape Australia’s past, and is a key ingredient in Australia’s future. From spiritual temples to a bustling commercial centre, from kitsch to classical, from ancient traditions to contemporary cultural development, the City of Fairfield is one of Australia’s most fascinating and culturally diverse places. Fairfield City is the home of the largest multicultural community in Australia. Residents are from more than 200 nations, speaking more than 80 languages. Tune into Fairfield City: a multicultural driving tour explores the stories of the many different peoples of this area, from Chinese market gardeners to Vietnamese Buddhists to the descendants of the Assiryan and Babylonian empires to the transformation of Cabrammatta as an exciting and vibrant Asian marketplace.’

Important Tour Notes

• It is appropriate to ask politely before taking photos.
• In some places you may need to cover your head or remove your shoes. Avoid revealing clothing.
• Talk quietly and respect the privacy of clergy, worshippers and community members. If you arrive with respect for culture and traditions you will be welcome.

The tour will be conducted by Paul Graham, Cultural Planner Fairfield Council

Lunch will be Yum Cha at Golden Star Palace, Cabramatta

Canterbury
Canterbury is a large inner western council in Sydney stretching from the edge of Botany Bay to Punchbowl.Much of Canterbury depended on road transport and settlement was encouraged by the extension of the tramway from Hurlstone Park to Canterbury in 1921 and from Undercliffe to Earlwood three years later. Canterbury’s greatest growth occured in the late 1920s with a ‘spectacular surge of building’ mainly brick cottages an dbungalows on subdivisions created before 1919 around the villages of Canterbury, Belmore and Lakemba.

The War Service Homes Commission was very active in the Canterbury municipality acquiring land previously occupied by sawmills, timberyards, brickpits and tile works and employing its own staff for construction. In the 1920s together with Bamkstown, Canterbury experienced the greatest proportional increase in the Sydney metropolitan area, jointly accounting for one fifth of the population increase.

The tour will be conducted by Brian Madden, eminent local historian and author.

The buses will return to Observatory Hill at 5.00. Arrangements to be picked up or dropped off en-route to be made with Janice Cave on (02) 92580176.

Sunday Tours - $25/day (incl. lunch)

Ryde and North Sydney

The tour will begin at the bottom of the Agar Steps, Kent Street, Millers Point. The bus will depart at 9.00. Ryde

The Ryde Housing Scheme:

Between 1945 and 1952 Ryde Council were involved in a ‘truly amazing’ scheme to build two thousand five hundred middle income houses in eighteen different housing estates through the Ryde Housing Scheme. Only nine hundred and fifty nine of the houses on seven estates were completed.

The Ryde Housing Scheme promoted the use of architects for the planning and individual house design. The architects used were well known, many recent award winners or committee members of the RAIA. In addition to Spencer, Spencer & Bloomfield the firms selected included Eric Andrew, Albert Hanson, Brewster & Murray, Buckland & Druce, Fredman, Stanley A Morris, H. J Tyler, Thompson & Spooner, Brown & Lightfoot Many were members of a group known as the Modern Architecture Research Society (MARS) formed in Sydney in 1938 and continuing until 1943.While the houses did not conform to the modernist aesthetic typified by flat roofed houses of European ‘Modernist’ appearance the planning agenda had overtones of modernist planning. Ryde Housing Scheme is unique as a local Government funded project for middle income residents.

Jennifer Hill

Picnic Lunch at Brush Farm Park

North Sydney
A walking Tour with Eden Shephard from Lavendar Bay to the commercial centre of North Sydney.

Click here to see Preliminary Conference Program

Click here to see Conference Contributors