By Cathy Jones 2020 (updated 2025)
‘Penong’ 5 Gelling Avenue Strathfield, a interwar bungalow, was built in 1928. It is located on the 1810 Wilshire land grant which was subdivided as the Redmire Estate in 1867.
John Booth Jones was an original purchaser of Lot 6 of the Redmire Estate which was subdivided in 1867. This land measured 9 acres. Jones died in bankruptcy and the trustees of his estate sold this land to Henry Marcus Clark, owner of the Marcus Clark department stores. After Clark’s death, a transmission application was made by his executors in 1910 which included Joseph Ward Airey, Reginald Marcus Clark and William Day. Part of the former John Booth Jones’ land was then subdivided as Deposited Plan 7796 and marketed as the Strathfield Park Estate. This subdivision created Gelling Avenue (formerly Beaumont Street) and residential land lots on Homebush Road and Gelling Avenue.
A caveat was registered on the title requiring construction of any building to be in brick or stone with slate or tiled roof and such building would not cost less than £500.
Lot 33, on which 5 Gelling Ave is built, was transferred from the Trustees in September 1918 to Joseph Peter Worsley, which he transferred in October 1923 to Edward Henry Byron of Canowndra, carpenter and Edith Byron of Leichhardt, spinster as joint tenants. It was further transferred to the Intercolonial Investment Land & Building Company Ltd in 1927 and then to Charles Albert Myring in 1928. Myring (1875-1962) was a manager of the Bank of Australasia, which later became part of the ANZ bank.
In April 1928 Charles Myring lodged a building application with Strathfield Council to construct a brick cottage for the estimate value of £1250. The nominated builder was S R Parry, St Clair Street, Belmore. The house first appears in the 1929 Sands Directory occupied by Charles Myring and named ‘Penong’.
In 1930 Myring remarried, after the death of his first wife Rose, to Ethel Sjodin at Burwood.
In 1940, Myring sold the house to Ernest Edward Rooster, a chartered engineer for £1325. Rooke owned “Penong’ until 1965.
References
Advertising (1928, April 18). Construction and Local Government Journal (Sydney, NSW : 1913 – 1930), p. 4. Retrieved October 15, 2025, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article109728091
Department of Valuer-General, Valuation Lists, Municipality of Strathfield
Fox & Associates, Strathfield Heritage Study, 1986
“In the Supreme Court of New South Wales.—Probate Jurisdiction.—In the will of CHARLES ALBERT MYRING, late” Government Gazette of the State of New South Wales (Sydney, NSW : 1901 – 2001) 10 May 1963: 1291. Web. 24 Aug 2020 <http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article220326587>.
NSW Land Registry
Sands Sydney & Suburban Directory
Strathfield Council Building Register
Wise’s Post Office Directory of Strathfield, Enfield and Homebush 1936.
