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Vernacular Housing?

A week or so ago, I made some pictures of the houses in Wright Street Sunshine that may disappear in the next few years. With one empty block and 2 for sale signs in a strip of a dozen or so house this makes for some big changes afoot. What I neglected to mention or perhaps didn’t recognise was that most of these buildings follow a similar style and appearance. I’m guessing that at some point a government agency was involved with these house’s construction.

Map of the inner west showing the site of the former RAAF base. — Former RAAF base in Tottenham marked in red, in relation to my house on the extreme left.

Thirty years ago there was an active RAAF base on a site that is now light industry and shopping centre a couple of Kilometres down the road. The site was sold to private developers in 1983(1)

There are some existing buildings of a similar style near the old site and they share similar characteristics to the ones I photographed in Wright Street. The common denominators that connect them are the materials. Fibre Cement is common. Small footprint and tiled roofs others.

The current formula that seems to be being applied to these old buildings, is the old houses are demolished. Then if the site permits several small units are built in their place. While these new units are dotted around the suburb, the danger of a homogeneous streetscape looms large.

Given that Wright Street is an arterial road then I doubt there may be that much new development going up. Keeping an eye on planning permits and council notifications will enable me to track these changes. Thereby producing a meaningful record of the suburb as it changes.

Footnotes

(1) Moca, P. 2015, Forty years ago May 28, 1975 Sunshine’s town clerk, Mr Bill Deutschmann,…[Derived Headline], Airport West, Vic.

Literary Response to Covid 19

There is plenty being written about the pandemic across every political spectrum. This article turned up in my newsfeed on Facebook recently. The title Melbourne is not a city in revolt. The truth is far more incredible (and far more boring) says plenty, but the article really sums up how many ordinary folks are feeling myself included.

Covid 19 Responses

Many individuals and organisations have responded to the Pandemic. Here is a website that collates a group of photographers who are contemplating the place we find ourselves in as a culture.

From the about page:-

2020. A new decade represented by climate change, bushfires, drought, a global pandemic and the threat of a great depression. For thousands who work in the arts their immediate and future livelihoods have been dramatically impacted.

As a way of helping to bring our industry together and support the artists, The Kitchen Creative Management in collaboration with Christopher Doyle & Co, SUNSTUDIOS and Momento Pro, have curated this online exhibition to showcase innovative works conceived in 2020.

“Between Today and Tomorrow” is a repository of a society’s collective memory – preserving the artists experience of how it feels to exist in a particular place at a particular time. The time of COVID-19.

The History of the World Wide Web

I found this website that explores through a timeline and in a decade by decade series, how we got to where we are in terms of the current world wide web. It uses fairly non-technical language and builds on and adds to some of the Web’s best known stories.