By Cathy Jones (2020)
Welfare Street and Flemington Road Homebush West are located in Homebush, off Parramatta Road and opposite Sydney Markets. The Wentworth Hotel is located on the east side of Flemington Road, while the western side of the street has houses. Until 2014, the houses in these streets were owned by Sydney Olympic Park Authority (SOPA), but were been sold to private owners.
The land on which this precinct is built had continuous ownership by agencies and authorities of the NSW Government since c.1919. This precinct is a small group of houses in a location which is surrounded by predominately industrial/commercial development.
Homebush Council approved an application by the Meat Industry Board to build ten cottages in June 1919 at an estimated value of £5750. The builder was J Johnson. The street first appears in Sands Sydney Directory for Homebush in 1921.
Until 2014, the houses were continuously owned by the NSW Government, under lease arrangements. The houses are located in an unusual location. Historical aerial photographs reveal that they are the only residential houses built on the north of Parramatta Road. The above photograph is dated 1947 and indicates this precinct in relation to other non-residential development.
The houses in Welfare Street and Flemington Road are likely to have been built for the Metropolitan Meat Industry Board to accommodate workers at the State (or Homebush) Abattoirs, formerly an agency of the NSW Government. Metropolitan Meat Industry Board which was established in 1916 and abolished in 1932. The State Abattoir ceased operation at Homebush in 1988.
Ownership of these properties transferred to the responsible State Agency which has included the Homebush Abattoir Corporation, then the Homebush Bay Development Corporation and finally the Sydney Olympic Park Authority (SOPA) before the sale to private owners.
