By Cathy Jones (2023)
1 Short Street Homebush is located on the corner of Underwood Road. The house is a single storey timber cottage with an iron roof and verandah. It is a rare example of the early 20th Century housing in the former Homebush Council area and is a heritage item on the Strathfield Local Environmental Plan. The house is described as:
‘a single story weatherboard buildings with a asymmetrical facade. It features a hip and gable corrugated iron roof, bullnose, verandah, turned timber verandah posts and metal sunhood. It much of its original external detailing, and is a good example of a modest timber cottage’[1].
1 Short Street is built on the land granted to Thomas Rose on 10 May 1798. By 1910, William Charles Wentworth Maiden, a stock salesman, was the registered owner of twenty acres known as Lots 28 and 29, Section 24, Deposited Plan 477[2],. On 29 March 1911, Maiden submitted a subdivision plan to Homebush Council to divide land and create a street that became Short Street[3]. This plan was approved and in May 1911, a notification issued in the NSW Government Gazette that service pipes were to laid in Short Street between Underwood Road and Wentworth Road[4]. On 13 October 1911, Lot 1 of Deposited Plan 6194 was transferred to Michael Tracey, a labourer.
Homebush Council minutes of February 7 1912 record the approval Building Committee report recommending the approval of plans for four new cottages in Short St. While there are no lot numbers referenced, it is likely that 1 Short Street was built in this period.
A house in Short Street Homebush is listed for Mrs Mary Tracey in the Sands Directory of 1912. Prior to this Mrs Tracey, the mother of the registered owner Michael Tracey, lived in Underwood Road[5]. The original number for the house was 28 Short Street, which was numbered 1 Short Street in 1965.
The 1913 Electoral Roll for the Flemington sub-division lists the adult occupants of the house which include Mrs Mary Tracey, Michael Tracey, labourer; Jennie Tracey, machinist; John Tracey, labourer; and Thomas Tracey, machinist.
Following the death of Michael Tracey in 1919, an application for transmission made by Mary Tracey, widow, on 7 October 1919. Mrs Tracey died in 1921 and was buried in the Catholic section of Rookwood Cemetery. An application for transmission was made by her son Lionel Laurence Tracey, motor mechanic, on 18 August 1921. The house was sold to Annie Dalton, a widow of Auburn, in September 1922.
Mrs Dalton died in 1939 and the house transferred to her daughter Annie Ellen Dalton in October 1939. Annie Dalton sold the house in February 1956 to John William Dunlop of Homebush, labourer.
Short Street was significantly altered by the building of the M4 Motorway (formerly F4 and also known as Westconnex) in the late 1970s resulting in Short Street becoming two cul-de-sacs named Short Street East and Short Street West. The widening of the Motorway at Homebush, completed 2019, resulted in the acquisition of land by the NSW Government on the eastern side of Short Street (east), opposite 1 Short Street. All housing was demolished and a large ventilation tower was erected. The residue land was returned to open space.
References
[1] Fox & Associates (1986), 1 Short Street Homebush, Heritage Inventory Sheet
[2] NSW Land Register, CT v.2100 v.208
[3] Homebush Council Minutes, 29 March 1911. Subdivision is registered as DP 6194.
[4] NOTICE TO LAY SERVICE PIPES. (1911, May 31). Government Gazette of the State of New South Wales (Sydney, NSW : 1901 – 2001), p. 3050. Retrieved May 6, 2023, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article226773190
[5] Census 1901 Mary Tracey, Underwood Road. Sands Directory 1903.
