By Cathy Jones (2026)
‘Top O’Churchill’ 64 Homebush Road Strathfield is located on the corner of Homebush Road and Churchill Avenue. It is an Interwar Bungalow, built in 1934. The property was formerly numbered 44A Homebush Road but was renumbered in 62 Homebush Road in 1960.
64 Homebush Road is built part of Lot 5 of the King’s Estate. The King’s Estate is a subdivision of a large nine acre site that was previously owned by James Powell. The land was acquired by Robert Joshua King (1857-1934) 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).
Lot 5 of the Kings Estate was acquired by the Minister for Public Works in March 1908. This land was located on the corner of Homebush Road and Churchill Avenue. In 1917, part of the land at the rear of the land, which faced Churchill Avenue, was transferred to the Board of Water Supply and Sewerage and in 1918 transferred to the Minister for Public Works as the constructing authority to build a metal tube Sewer Vent, which is part of the Bondi Ocean Outfall System (BOOS). The metal tube vent shafts were beneficial in removing noxious gases from the sewers and reducing internal pressure.
The residue of the land and the land which is now 62 Homebush Road, was retained by the NSW Government with the intention of building a police station. Both sites remained vacant until the Government decided not to proceed with these plans.
In April 1934, part of lot 5 (then known as Lot B) was transferred from the Hon. Reginald Walter Darcy Weaver, Minister for Public Works of State of NSW to Denis Fitzgerald, a cattle dealer. In April 1935, Denis Fitzgerald lodged a building application to build a brick cottage of seven rooms on Lot 5. The estimated value of works was £1300. The builder was H Hall, 12 Greenacre St, North Strathfield.
Fitzgerald was the owner of the property until 1958 when it was transferred to Ena Isabelle Summerton of Strathfield. In 1974, the property was transferred to Rodney Cooper, a general manager of Strathfield South and his wife, Annette Cooper.
The current owners of the house have called the house ‘Top O’Churchill’.
References
Department of Valuer-General, Municipality of Strathfield, Valuation Lists
Fox & Associates, Strathfield Heritage Study, 1986
NSW Land Registry
Sewer Vent, Sydney Water Heritage Asset, 68 Churchill Avenue Strathfield https://www.hms.heritage.nsw.gov.au/App/Item/ViewItem?itemId=4570491
