Image right: Mountain View Estate, Strathfield 1906. Courtesy State Library of NSW
Sunday Times 2 December 1906 p.3 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/126561053
The 27 lots of the Strathfield Heights Mountain View Estate were offered at auction during December 1906 by Messrs Hardie and Gorman. Although the onsite auction was advertised for 8 December, the date was pushed back a week due to bad weather.[1] These quarter-acre lots formed all of the newly constructed Augusta Street at that date, running between Chalmers and Homebush Roads. Three lots were also offered fronting Homebush Road. Photos of the surrounding area were included on the subdivision poster, which was rare, but give some indication of the district at that time.
Images from 1906 Mountain View Estate Subdivision poster. Courtesy State Library of NSW
The Sydney Morning Herald of 12 January 1907 noted that two of the allotments had sold that week at a combined cost of £99.[2] Blocks were still being offered for sale in August 1907[3] and March 1908.[4] One block was offered for £33 during September 1907, asking a £2 deposit and payment of £1 per month.[5]
The first mention of Augusta Street Strathfield in the digitised newspapers on Trove is in August 1910 when the death notice appeared for the daughter of Mrs J.J. Wright of Augusta Street Strathfield.[6]
The valuation records for Strathfield Council date back to 1924 and show that some of the original cottages of the Mountain View Estate were named Nepean, Glen Allan, St Johns, Sackville, Karinya, Wyrallah, Dibdale, Linderu, Mount Erica and Strathmore. Quite a few lots were yet to be built upon. Lots 10 and 19 consisted of tennis courts only.
The lots on the north side now back on to Strathfield Park which was purchased and dedicated as Strathfield’s first park in 1914. This was part of the Waller Estate. You may be able to see the mythical Waller Street labelled on the local sketch on the right of the subdivision poster. This would now be part of Strathfield Park. Beaumont Street is also listed - later renamed Gelling Avenue. Locals will also notice that the subdivision poster shows Chalmers Road bisecting Augusta Street. This did not eventuate and Chalmers Road now terminates at Augusta Street. Rickard Road was later developed to the south.
Evening News 5 September 1930 p.6 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/118761855
Peter Monaghan ran a dairy on lots 4 and 5 of the Mountain View Estate. The Monaghans lived next door on lot 6 in a cottage named Cobargo. The family had previously run a dairy in Beresford Road but as the area became more settled, they looked further afield. William Monaghan was interviewed c.1980 and noted:
‘By 1910 more homes were being built near the Beresford Road dairy and people were beginning to mutter opposition. So we moved to Augusta Street where there was little development and a lot of open land. We started with 5 acres and built it up to about 11 acres. Our home there was a large weatherboard house – its still there at no.12 Augusta Street. Our land included 3 blocks on Homebush Road (now no.s 173, 175 & 177) and ran down Augusta Street to present day Rickard Steet and back beyond Mintaro Avenue which was not then in existence. We ran 70 cows at this dairy and had 6 delivery carts. We delivered as far away as Concord and Croydon.
In 1932 people began to build in the Augusta Street area and we were served notice by the Council to move the dairy. On this occasion we moved the cows to an old historic farm – Robin Hodd Farm – at Ingleburn. We kept the stables and other buildings at Augusta Street as a depot, and erected a suitable building for cooling milk and storing cans. We bought the milk twice a day from Ingleburn to the depot. The dairies were known as “Waratah Dairies.” Years after we ceased operations (1950), a sign showing “P.J. Monaghan Waratah Dairies” remained there and could be seen from the road.’[7]
Daily Telegraph 31 December 1940 p.5 Sydney Morning Herald 11 August 1951 p.26
https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/248817377 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/27532550
By J.J. MacRitchie
Local Studies Advisor
References
[1] Sunday Times 9 January 1906 p.2 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/126563454
[2] Sydney Morning Herald 12 January 1907 p.15 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/14808893
[3] Sydney Morning Herald 3 August 1907 p.22 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/14892215
[4] Sydney Morning Herald 21 March 1908 p.20 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/14947834
[5] Sydney Morning Herald 21 September 1907 p.20 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/14885986
[6] Sydney Morning Herald 6 August 1910 p.12 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/15191105
[7] Monaghan, William ‘Recollections of early Strathfield’ Strathfield District Historical Society Newsletter Vol.3 No.10 June 1981