NRS-5225 | Photographs of Dacey Garden Suburb (Daceyville)

Full description

The Dacey Garden Suburb (Daceyville) was developed by the Housing Board of New South Wales between 1913 and 1918 as Sydney's "first planned modern garden suburb". The new neighborhood predominantly public in ownership had an integrated design of family houses, open spaces, streetscapes, tree plantings, and gardens. (1) This suburb was named after John Rowland Dacey, Member of the Legislative Assembly for the constituencies of Botany (1895 to 1904) and Alexandria (1904 to 1912) and Colonial Treasurer and Registrar of Records (1911 to 1912), (2) who played a vital role in the approval of this urban development. Daceyville is located in the city of Sydney about 2 km South by East of Kensington and about 2 km West of Coogee within the municipalities of Mascot and Botany.

This series consists of a photographic album containing a photographic illustration of the "Dacey Garden Suburb as it will appear when completed", plus photographs of the "virgin country" before development, construction workers gathered for a group picture on pay day, the construction depot, land reclamation, road building, storm water channel excavations and installations. Individual building site photographs highlight the use of specific materials including Hydropal Patent Roofing, Sampson concrete blocks, and Government sand lime bricks.

The buildings depicted include the "electric power house", the Public School, plus cottages and semi-detached houses. A number photographs identify specific housing designs used in the project, they are Types A1, A2, B2, E, L, No.1, No.16, No. 20, Prize Plan, and Foggitt's No.1, No.2 and No.3. Rental rates are given for each house. There are also interior shots of the front rooms in two cottage's, plus views of completed houses, street intersections, shops, backyards, and initial garden plantings. The Daceyville Public School is represented by a photograph of the pupils and their teacher gathered on the verandah in June 1914, along with separate photographs of the assembled boys and assembled girls in September 1917.

Series Background

This photographic album was received in 1961 from the Government Real Estate Office.


Endnotes
1. Daceyville: A planned garden suburb in Sydney - A virtual essay by Robert Freestone, http://www.fbe.unsw.edu.au/DigitlaLibrary/Freestone/daceyville.stm.
2. The New South Wales Parliamentary Record, August 1999 (revised).