By Cathy Jones (2021, updated 2023)
’Munna’ 38 Broughton Rd Homebush is located on the historic Village of Homebush Estate. This house is a heritage item on Strathfield Council’s Local Environmental Plan and described as:
“Built early this century “Munna” is a single storey, brick Federation house. A slate roof has rendered chimneys, terra cotta ridge cresting and capping and half timbering and render to the gables. A return verandah features a balustraded valance and square timber posts on brick supports. Other elements included dichromatic brickwork, brick voussoirs, lead-light windows, brick arch over the entry, brick fence and mature plantings”.
Broughton Road Homebush is located within the site of various 1793 land grants offered to a group of free settlers in an area known as Liberty Plains by the NSW Colonial Government anxious to secure a food supply for the growing colony. Land was granted to Frederick Meredith 60 acres dated 28th May 1793, Thomas Rose 70 acres originally granted on 10 May 1798, Simeon Lord granted 160 acres dated 9 August 1803 and Edward Powell 19 acres dated 1 January 1810. The land proved difficult to farm and the settlers abandoned farming activity and moved from their land.
Eventually, this land and other land located in the current day Homebush West and Homebush (both sides of the railway line) came under the ownership of James Underwood, Edward Powell’s son-in-law. The land became known as the ‘Underwood Estate’. In 1878, 306 acres of the Underwood Estate was subdivided into 15 sections and marketed as ‘Village of Homebush’. This subdivision created Burlington Rd, Beresford Road, Abbotsford Rd, Bridge St, Coventry Rd, Meredith St, Homebush Crescent (later The Crescent) and Bellevue Street (later Homebush Road).
‘Munna’ is built on part Lot 10, Section 7 of the Village of Homebush Estate, which was offered for sale in late 1878. By 1913, this land was acquired by Warwick Clarke, who lodged an application to construct a house. The building was approved in September 1913 for a brick cottage of 4+ rooms with a slate roof at the estimated value of £760. The builder was H B Turnbull, Croydon.
The house first appears in the Sands Directory for Strathfield in 1915 as occupied by Warren Clarke and named ‘Munna’. Warwick MacKenzie Clark (1865-1955) lived at ‘Munna’ with his wife Admella (née Ward) ( 1868-1937). Warren Clarke was employed with NSW Department of Education for fifty years was a school teacher. He commenced his career as pupil teacher at Singleton, in August, 1881. He held the position of headmaster at the following schools:- Moree, Mittagong, Mudgee, Granville, Balmain, Enmore, Canterbury, and Tempe. His final school was Tempe, before his retirement in 1930.
Clarke owned the house until c.1945 when ownership transferred to Wallace Faulkner, chemical industry worker. The house continued to be owned by Faulkner until the 1960s.
The house was originally numbered 34 Broughton but renumbered in 1957 as 38 Broughton Road.
References
MRS. ADMELLA CLARKE. (1937, September 16). North West Champion (Moree, NSW : 1915 – 1954), p. 5. Retrieved April 7, 2023, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article178288493
Department of Valuer-General, Valuation List, Municipality of Strathfield
Sands Sydney and Suburban Directory 1915-1932
Strathfield Council Building Register Vol.1
‘Warwick Clarke’ (1930, December 16), Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 – 1954), page 12
‘Warwick Clarke’, State Records Authority of New South Wales; Kingswood, New South Wales, Australia; Indexes to Deceased Estate Files; Reference: 3321
Strathfield Heritage 