By Cathy Jones
The land bounded by Ardittos Lane to the north, Elva Street to the east, Redmyre Road to the south and Homebush Road to the west was purchased by Robert Joshua King and Mary Ann Balmain, wife of surveyor and Strathfield Council Town Clerk John Hope Balmain, in 1903. Prior to this time, it was largely considered unusable due to the presence of a watercourse and creek (which is now a Sydney Water closed stormwater conduit). King and Balmain subdivided the two allotments into 66 feet wide blocks fronting Redmyre Road and The Avenue (later Churchill Avenue), a new street to link Elva Street and Homebush Road. The land was auctioned as the ‘King Estate’.
The land was gradually taken up with the last allotments sold in 1914. Many of the sales did not correspond with the original subdivisions, a number of purchasers preferring narrower frontages. A convenant was placed on most sales requiring ‘one main building only on the said land and such building shall be a double fronted…and be built of brick and/stone with roof of slates and/or tiles and shall not cost less than £300”.
21 to 67 Redmyre Road are built on the ‘King Estate’.
Part Lot 45 was purchased from King & Balmain on 5 March 1907 by John Grice, a pastrycook and foreman of Strathfield. According to changes in valuation values recorded in Strathfield Council valuation records, the house was built in 1907. Grice sold the property in March 1909 to Honoria Matchett, a widow of Sydney. Mrs Matchett was the mother of prominent grazier William Matchett, who also resided in Strathfield. Mrs Matchett named the house ‘Napier’. Following the death of Mrs Matchett in 1917, the executors of her estate sold the house in March 1918 to Arthur Slater, an accountant. Slater renamed the house ‘Yaami’.
Slater served as an Alderman on Strathfield Council from 1934 to 1941. Slater Reserve in Homebush is named from him.
Slater died in 1954 and the property was transferred to ownership of his widow Edith Maud Slater. Ownership transferred to Alfred Wilson, after the death of Mrs Slater in 1960.
References
Department of the Valuer General NSW – Valuation List – Valuation District of Strathfield 1924, 1930 and 1960
Fox & Associates, Strathfield Heritage Study, 1986
Land Titles Register
Sands Directory for Sydney and Suburbs 1900-1932
Strathfield Council Valuation Lists 1894 to 1920
Strathfield Council Notices of Land Transfer (1927-1960s)
