Workers at the Housing Commission of Victoria's Holmesglen factory with pre-fabricated house assemblies, Batesford Road, Holemesglen (now Malvern East), 10 June 1949
Title: Housing Commission of Victoria's Holmesglen factory where houses are pre-fabricated and assembled on site.
Photographer: Lyle Fowler
Date: 1949 - 0610
This photo is the best from a series of 20 images available from the SLV, the others being poorly scanned.
In February 1945 The Age reported on the establishment of the Holmesglen prefabricated housing factory and the adjacent estates, including Jordanville (now part of Chadstone) thus:
Built originally for the manufacture of Army tanks, but never used for the purpose, a Commonwealth factory at Holmesglen, near East Malvern, is to be taken over by the Housing Commission from the commonwealth. The commission intends to install machinery for the prefabrication of houses, as a part of its programme to make up the leeway in lack of homes, as soon as circumstances permit. Some time ago the commission bought up a considerable area of land in the district for housing estates, and It is expected that some of the first of the prefabricated buildings from the Holmesglen factory, will be erected there.
Work started on converting the site from an Army store to a concrete wall prefabrication plant in February 1946.
In March 1947, the Victorian Premier Mr Cain announced announced that the state government had purchased sufficient land in the Holmesglen area for 2,000 houses. The estate, later to be named Jordanville, stretched either side of the Glen Waverley railway line between Warrigal and Bay View Rds (now Huntingdale Rd), bounded in the north by High Street Rd and in the south by Waverley Rd. By then, the Holmesglen prefabrication factory was "producing enough concrete walls, foundations, and timber sets for the construction of 10 houses a week."
In February 1950, The Age published a puff piece about the factory, including several photographs. A June 1950 report by The Age on an industrial dispute at the factory noted that "closing of the factory would have forced about 1100 men to seek other employment."
The factory produced houses, flats and other buildings for sites across Victoria, including for the 1956 Olympic Village in Heidelberg.
The factory was closed around 1980 and subsequently became the Chadstone campus of the Holmesglen Institute of TAFE. The distinctive saw tooth roofing of the original main factory building is still a feature of the site. See locale on Googhle Maps.
Copyright status: This work is in copyright
Conditions of use: Use of this work allowed provided the creator and SLV acknowledged.
Source: SLV
Identifier(s): H92.20/3146
Record ID: 9940069952907636
Series: Harold Paynting collection. K series
Link:handle.slv.vic.gov.au/10381/4295205
Workers at the Housing Commission of Victoria's Holmesglen factory with pre-fabricated house assemblies, Batesford Road, Holemesglen (now Malvern East), 10 June 1949
Title: Housing Commission of Victoria's Holmesglen factory where houses are pre-fabricated and assembled on site.
Photographer: Lyle Fowler
Date: 1949 - 0610
This photo is the best from a series of 20 images available from the SLV, the others being poorly scanned.
In February 1945 The Age reported on the establishment of the Holmesglen prefabricated housing factory and the adjacent estates, including Jordanville (now part of Chadstone) thus:
Built originally for the manufacture of Army tanks, but never used for the purpose, a Commonwealth factory at Holmesglen, near East Malvern, is to be taken over by the Housing Commission from the commonwealth. The commission intends to install machinery for the prefabrication of houses, as a part of its programme to make up the leeway in lack of homes, as soon as circumstances permit. Some time ago the commission bought up a considerable area of land in the district for housing estates, and It is expected that some of the first of the prefabricated buildings from the Holmesglen factory, will be erected there.
Work started on converting the site from an Army store to a concrete wall prefabrication plant in February 1946.
In March 1947, the Victorian Premier Mr Cain announced announced that the state government had purchased sufficient land in the Holmesglen area for 2,000 houses. The estate, later to be named Jordanville, stretched either side of the Glen Waverley railway line between Warrigal and Bay View Rds (now Huntingdale Rd), bounded in the north by High Street Rd and in the south by Waverley Rd. By then, the Holmesglen prefabrication factory was "producing enough concrete walls, foundations, and timber sets for the construction of 10 houses a week."
In February 1950, The Age published a puff piece about the factory, including several photographs. A June 1950 report by The Age on an industrial dispute at the factory noted that "closing of the factory would have forced about 1100 men to seek other employment."
The factory produced houses, flats and other buildings for sites across Victoria, including for the 1956 Olympic Village in Heidelberg.
The factory was closed around 1980 and subsequently became the Chadstone campus of the Holmesglen Institute of TAFE. The distinctive saw tooth roofing of the original main factory building is still a feature of the site. See locale on Googhle Maps.
Copyright status: This work is in copyright
Conditions of use: Use of this work allowed provided the creator and SLV acknowledged.
Source: SLV
Identifier(s): H92.20/3146
Record ID: 9940069952907636
Series: Harold Paynting collection. K series
Link:handle.slv.vic.gov.au/10381/4295205