Item HT 12559 Brochure - E.W. Hales and Sons, Display Home, Footscray, early 1960s

Summary

Brochure dating from the early 1960s promoting E.W. Hales and Sons homes. The brochure advertises a display home available for £3795, to be 'erected on your own land', and includes a photograph of the house, a floor plan, and a list of features. This cost did not include polished floors, concrete or fencing. For interested customers who had not fully paid off their land, EW Hales and Sons offered finance to assist buying a home. They also offered a variety of land and house packages. The business was located at 173 Nicholson Street in Footscray, an inner west suburb of Melbourne.

A house based on the display home design featured in this brochure was selected from over 100 designs by Graeme and Elaine Fullarton, to be built as their first home at 83 Quinn Grove in East Keilor. Graeme had bought adjoining land with his brother Bruce Fullarton in 1959 on Quinn Grove and David Street in East Keilor. In 1964 they both built homes using the same builder, JR Donnelly Builders of Glenroy.

This document is part of a collection of documents and photographs that relates to the purchase of land, and the construction and setting up of a family home by Graeme Fullarton in Keilor East, in the period from the late 1950s to the late 1960s. The collection tracks the 'great Australian dream' of owning a home. It includes a sub-set of over 100 housing brochures, issued by project builders and developers in the early 1960s in Melbourne, and collected by Graeme and his wife while looking for an appropriate house to build.

Other items in this collection include legal documents relating to Graeme's land purchase; his subsequent house construction plan; mortgage repayment, land valuation, rates and sanitary services accounts; a quotation relating to the connection of the telephone service; house content insurance accounts; and gas and electricity accounts from the first years in the home. Family photographs show the house being built, from its footings through to the roof being put on.

Physical Description

Brochure for E.W. Hales and Sons display homes, located at 173 Nicholson Street, Footscray. Brochure is printed on white paper with black lettering. Inside features a photograph of the home, a floor plan, and a list of features. A handwritten address in blue pen is on the inside: "F. Meredith 168 Broadway Reservoir". Creases across brochure.

Significance

This object is part of a document and photograph collection that tracks the 'great Australian dream' of owning a home through the experience of Mr Graeme Fullarton, during the period from the late 1950s to the late 1960s. This collection includes some of the legal documents relating to Graeme's land purchase; his subsequent house construction plan; brochures from builders; mortgage repayment, land valuation, rates and sanitary services accounts; a quotation relating to the connection of the telephone service; house content insurance accounts; and gas and electricity accounts from the first years in the home. Family photographs show the house being built, from its footings through to the roof being put on.

This collection includes about 100 housing brochures, issued by project builders and developers in the early 1960s in Melbourne. This sub-set of housing brochures is a great addition to the domestic life collection. It provides an overview of the surveying process that many young couples went through whilst seeking their own home in the post war period, and provides an excellent representation of the types of house designs available to build yourself or buy from an architect, builder or developer. The brochures show the floor plan spaces and arrangement, design aesthetic, materials and finishes, sizes, and costs of housing in the early 1960s, and reveal how architects, builders and developers promoted the idea of the home to Melburnians.