In response to requests for information on history of properties in Welfare Street and Flemington Road Homebush West.
The Welfare Street Heritage Conservation Area includes a series of interwar cottages in Welfare Street and Flemington Road Homebush West. The precinct is located in Homebush, off Parramatta Road and opposite Sydney Markets. This precinct is listed as a heritage conservation area on Strathfield Council’s Local Environmental Plan (LEP). Until recently, the precinct was owned by Sydney Olympic Park Authority (SOPA). This precinct has been recently sold to private interests.
The land on which this precinct is built has had continuous ownership by agencies and authorities of the NSW Government since c.1919. This precinct is a small group of houses in a location which is predominately industrial/commercial. The houses were built c.1920 and the street first appears in Sands Sydney Directory for Homebush in 1921. Until 2014, the houses were continuously owned by the NSW Government, though leased. The houses are located in an unusual location. Historical aerial photographs reveal that they are the only residential houses built on the north of Parramatta Road.
The houses in Welfare Street and Flemington Road are likely to have been built for the Metropolitan Meat Industry Board to accommodate workers at the State (or Homebush) Abattoirs, formerly an agency of the NSW Government. Metropolitan Meat Industry Board which was established in 1916 and abolished in 1932. The State Abbatoir ceased operation at Homebush in 1988.
Ownership of the Welfare Street precinct properties transferred to the responsible State Agency which has included the Homebush Abattoir Corporation, Homebush Bay Development Corporation and finally the Sydney Olympic Park Authority (SOPA).
Strathfield Heritage 