by Cathy Jones 2025
‘Wynella’ 50 Churchill Avenue Strathfield is located between The Boulevarde and Homebush Road. The house was built in 1910 and is a single story brick Federation house featuring front verandahs and a slate roof.
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.
Churchill Ave Strathfield is built on a 1903 subdivision that was marketed as the ‘Kings Estate’. The estate was subdivided by Robert Joshua King (d.1934) and Mary Ann Balmain (d.1943), the wife of surveyor and Town Clerk of Strathfield Council, John Hope Balmain. The Kings Estate created the western end of Churchill Avenue (then called The Avenue), Redmyre Road (part) and Homebush Road (part).
‘Wynella’ was built in 1910 for John Elliott Cameron who had purchased the land on 26 August 1909. The house was built in 1911 and appears for the first time in Sands Directory in 1912 occupied by Ralph Curry. The house was numbered 50 Churchill Avenue and has not been numbered.
While the title remained in Cameron‘s name until 1943, it was the residence of Ralph Curry (d.1943), an engineer and his wife Agnes (1868-1948) (née Beaty) from 1912 to 1928, after which it appears to have been tenanted.
However in 1943, likely after the death of Ralph Curry, the property was transferred to Agnes Curry, and Samuel Edward Cook, a solicitor. With the death of Samuel Cook the title was transferred to Agnes Curry in 1945. Curry sold a property that year to Doreen Carpenter, a widow. Carpenter retained the house until 1961.
References
Department of Valuer-General, Municipality of Strathfield, Valuation Lists
NSW Land Registry
Sands Sydney and Suburbs Directory 1881-1933
