By Cathy Jones (2025)
‘Halloween’, 69 Redmyre Road Strathfield was built in 1887 as a residence for the Council Clerk of the Municipality of Strathfield. This property is located on the 1793 Thomas Rose grant, which was partly acquired by James Powell.
Strathfield Municipality was incorporated on 2 June 1885. Council meetings and administration operated in various private homes until the new Council was able to obtain land and funds to erect a permanent Council Chambers and offices. In August 1886, the Council acquired land from James Powell at the cost of £600 on the corner of Homebush and Redmyre Roads Strathfield.
The Council issued tenders for architects to submit plans for design of a new Council Chambers and council clerk residence. The successful tenderer was John Sulman (1849-1934), of the architectural firm Sulman and Blackmann. Sulman had recently arrived from England and was a resident of Strathfield. The builder was John Morrison, a local builder and contractor. The total cost of the Council Chambers and Town Clerk’s residence was £1635.13.0.
The building of the Council Chambers and Town Clerk’s residence were completed in 1877. The Strathfield Council Chambers was officially opened on 31st October 1877. For reasons unknown, the Council Clerk’s residence was named ‘Halloween’. This name appears on numerous documents including Sands Directory and Council’s Rates and Valuation Records.
In November 1887, the then Mayor William von der Heyde detected discrepancies in the Council accounts and interviewed the Council Clerk Frederick Bennett who confessed to having embezzled £635 of the Council’s funds. Bennett’s employment was terminated and he was instructed by the Mayor to vacate the cottage no later than Saturday 17 December 1887.
The house was then occupied by Council’s Town Clerk John Hope Balmain and family from 1887 until his death in 1906. In 1891, additional land was added on the western boundary of the site, which ran from Redmyre Road to Oxford Road. Part of this land was transferred in 1930 to the Municipal Council of Sydney for the purposes of constructing an electrical sub-station facing Oxford Road under the Municipal Council of Sydney Electric Lighting Act 1890. The next occupant was Albert Henry Thew and his family who served as Town Clerk of Strathfield from 1907 to 1938.
James Matthews was appointed as Town Clerk on 6 April 1938 following Thew’s retirement, however did not occupy this property as he already resided in Strathfield. The Council offered the property to its Caretaker on a lease arrangement until 1961.
Council resolved at the Council meeting on 28 March 1961 to sell this property and acquire 61/63 Homebush Road Strathfield for the purposes of ‘using the front portion of the building as accommodation for those members of the Staff who at present were not suitably accommodated and that the Caretaker would be housed in the rear portion of the property’, and the premises now occupied by him at 69 Redmyre Road would be sold’. The house was subsequently sold to Maraenit Pty Ltd, where it became a private residence.
In 2012, it was purchased again by Strathfield Council, despite the property being in a very poor condition with unsympathetic additions and alterations. In 2017-2018, the Council undertook major restoration works of the cottage, resulting in a heritage conservation award. This building known as ‘Halloween’ and is used as Council staff offices.
