By Cathy Jones
Churchill Avenue Strathfield is located between The Boulevarde and Homebush Road. Part of this street is located in the Strathfield Town Centre. The construction of Raw Square, in the late 1960s, had the effect of bisecting the residential area of Churchill Avenue from Strathfield CBD.
Churchill Avenue was originally known as ‘The Avenue’. The name was changed due to duplication with a street with the same name in Homebush. The name Churchill was adopted after World War II and named after British Wartime Prime Minister, Winston Churchill.
Churchill Avenue, between Elva Street and Homebush Road contains primarily Federation styled buildings. The relatively late development of this estate occurred, because the much of the land was considered unusable due to the presence of a large watercourse, created by overflow water from Powells Creek (which runs at nearby Elva Street and finishes at Strathfield Square).
Most of the houses in Churchill Avenue were built in the early 1900s. The area between Elva Street and Homebush Road was listed as a heritage conservation area in 1987 in Strathfield Council’s Local Environmental Plan.
69 Churchill Ave Strathfield is located on land originally granted to Thomas Rose. Part of the land was acquired by James Richard Powell, who in 1903 sold nine acres to Robert Joshua King (1934) and Mary Anne Balmain (d1934), the wife of surveyor and Town Clerk of Strathfield Council, John Hope Balmain. King and Balmain subdivided the land into residential lots which was marketed as the ‘Kings Estate’. The Kings Estate created the western end of Churchill Avenue (then called The Avenue), Redmyre Road (part) and Homebush Road (part).
Lot 8 was purchased by Susan Boston in May 1906. The title contained a covenant that required a house to be built in brick or stone or both and the minimum value of the main building shall be three hundred pounds.
The house ‘Oamaru’ was built in 1908. The first occupants were Susan’s daughter Lillian Evelyn Snelling (d.1961) and her husband, Percy Snelling (d.1963). Snelling was an accountant. In 1943, after the death of Susan Boston, the property was transferred by transmission to Percy Edgar Boston, Ehtel Mary Walters and Lillian Snelling, married women. The house was transferred to the ownership of Lillian Snelling. Percy and Lillian Snelling remained at ‘Oamaru’ until their deaths.
In 1963, Leonard Newman Poole, a solicitor was registered as the owner. The house was transferred in March 1963 to Victor Petrovich Lubimoff of Strathfield, motor mechanic and Victorian Lubimoff, his wife as joint tenants.
References
1964 ‘RE will of PERCY FREDERICK SNELLING, late of’, Government Gazette of the State of New South Wales (Sydney, NSW : 1901 – 2001), 18 September, p. 3006. , viewed 12 Jul 2020, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article220342900
1964 ‘RE will of LILLIAN EVELYN SNELLING, late of Strath’, Government Gazette of the State of New South Wales (Sydney, NSW : 1901 – 2001), 14 February, p. 514. , viewed 12 Jul 2020, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article220395079
Land Title searches, NSW Land and Property Information
Sands Sydney and Suburbs Directory 1881-1933
Strathfield Council Building Registers
