First Motor Garage in Strathfield & NSW

This 1909 article in Building Magazine features the above photograph of a Motor Vehicle Garage in Strathfield.  It is labelled ‘Mr. G. TODMAN’S MOTOR GARAGE AT STRATHFIELD’ and claims it to be the ‘First Garage Built in the State’.  The architect was Charles Slatyer, a well known architect, long-time resident of Strathfield and also the son-in-law of tobacco merchant George Todman, who lived at ‘Milroy’ Albert Road Strathfield.  The builder was Lewis Thomas.

In the early 1900s, there were few motor vehicles on local roads due to their high cost.  They were largely only owned by those with sufficient wealth.  However, many early owners lived in Strathfield such as Todman, John Maclean Arnott and Charles Hoskins.  There were clearly sufficient vehicles in Strathfield that complaints were made to Strathfield Council in 1906 about motor vehicles driving at dangerously fast speeds and by-laws were passed limiting vehicle speeds in their municipalities.

However, until the late 1910s, when mass production lowered their production costs, they remained financially out of reach for most of the population.  By 1926, over 127,000 vehicles were registered in NSW.

However, as this article notes, motor vehicles were the future as “Invention begets invention. Mankind no sooner gets accustomed to one contrivance than it is supplemented by another, more perfect. The railway obliterated the stage coach; the bicycle finished the riding hack; so, with the coming of the motor car, “the stables’’ — that usual feature of a country or suburban residence —go into disuse.  The motor garage is now the essential accessory to every house of any consequence, and its designing presents a new problem for architects to consider.”

The article considered that architects needed to plan for on-site garaging and the technical implications of storing vehicles containing flammable substances such as petrol and oil. Quoting a recent paper by Mr. Townsend, F.R.I.B.A:

“The dangers of petrol gas were brought up at the inquiries of the recent Select Committee on the prevention of fires. It was observed that gas from petrol and benzine had been known to collect in sewers and explode. Great care is needed to prevent these oils draining to the sewers in dangerous quantities. The drains should not be underground pipes, but open, half-round channels, so as to prevent the accumulation of explosive gas in the pipes. Lubricating oil should be kept from the tyres, on which it has a very injurious effect”.

Reference

Building : the magazine for the architect, builder, property owner and merchant, Vol. 3, No. 19 (12 March 1909)

Jones, Cathy & Macritchie, Jenny (2025) Pictorial History of the Strathfield district