An ordinary 1952 weatherboard in Sunshine North tells a story of housing shortages, migrant homebuilders and a time when Australians lived in much smaller homes. Have we become too quick to dismiss the value of the house in favour of the land it sits on?
10 Busch Street in Sunshine North is a detached weatherboard house with a tiled roof and a side driveway built in 1952. The sale listing describes two bedrooms, a separate lounge, a bathroom, a toilet and a laundry. For the advertised price range of $620-690k it sounds like a steal until you see the photographs which show that a lot of work is need to make it even liveable. However, based on the photographs it does seems that you could work with the bones, however cliché that may sound.
With a floor area of 83 square metres and a block of 524, it’s a compact home on a considerable larger block. I do have an affinity towards a ratio that favours large backyards and even with a knockdown and rebuild option I would still champion the idea of building a home that doesn’t take up more than half of the block. By today's standards, this is a very small house, it’s really more apartment sized.
What about the house itself? Before we even consider knocking it down, is there something here worth keeping. Afterall, I have also noted in previous articles that we often get rid of things before we realise their value. Even if the owner does knock it down, as I do get why that’s that’s an attractive choice for this property, let us at least explore what this house represents.
A house when houses were scarce
Australia came out of the Second World War badly short of homes. Melbourne's Old Treasury Building records people living in garden sheds and converted garages, newlyweds moving in with in-laws, and even people who could afford to buy a home could not always obtain permission to do so, as building materials were controlled due to Wartime restrictions.
The Housing Commission of Victoria built for low-income tenants, private builders sold houses from plan books and others bought land and constructed their own homes in stages, as money and materials allowed.
For those who wanted architecture without an architect's fee, there was the Small Homes Service. Established in 1947 by the Royal Victorian Institute of Architects in conjunction with The Age, and directed by a Robin Boyd, it published house designs in the newspaper and sold architectural plans for £5. A booklet of 24 designs cost sixpence and made owning a nice home more accessible albeit cookcutter. However, as noted by historian Humphrey McQueen owning a small house on a fenced allotment was "as inevitable and unquestionable a goal of the average Australian as marriage" and so as this was the Australian dream it was a comprisable solution to the home shortage issue.
Building in company
Museums Victoria tells the stories of migrants building homes in this post war period. Ivan Kucan and his family came to Australia in 1949 as displaced persons from Ukraine, after four years in a camp in Austria. They spent their first two years in migrant camps at Bonegilla and Benalla while the men worked under government contracts. When those contracts ended, Kucan and a group of friends bought land in the same street in Newport, in Melbourne's west, and helped one another build their homes.
i dont want a continue of the ukrain story i want another migrant family here.
Sunshine was a factory town before it was a suburb and gives continued insight into the history of homes in this area. H.V. McKay moved his harvester business to Braybrook Junction in 1906 and the district was renamed to Sunshine after his famous machine, according to Museums Victoria. His workforce changed after second world war with influx of migrants from Greece, Malta, Ireland, Syria, Egypt and Latvia, and by 1968 they outnumbered Australian-born workers in his company, with Italians the largest migrant group.
Concluding sentence that migrants built houses in this area as well as churches and community facilities. and the 50s sunshine was a new housing area that boomed. pick with citation is best for that.
What a small house might offer now
The proportions of 10 Busch Street make more sense within this historical context as laundries were often attached to a back porch or housed in a shed in the yard, where sewers had not yet arrived, lots could accommodate septic tanks and pan toilets. Sheds held tools, fuel and bicycles. It was a time when the outdoor space was heavilz valued for the plethora of activities that it was used for, of course children playing and socialising and eating outdoors, that much has remained today but it was also the space for washing, storing, mending and building. ‘mazbe this sentence doesnt add anzthing or can be tightened or attached somewhere else.
But hey, let’s see what is getting the awards. The 2024 Australian House of the Year was praised for the fact that it “resists the temptation to expand and enlarge”, making the case for reworking a property using the exisitng footprint. In this situation it was an older worker’s cottage but the point stands. architects X and X at studio and studio is really wordy and id love to include it all but perhaps theirs a short elegant way to weave it in here.
Meanwhile, people are creating second dwellings on their large properties and in October 2026, Victoria increased the maximum size of a small second dwelling from 60 to 80 square metres.So technically, the 10 Busch Street house is what is now being classified as a small secondary home on a property with an existing dwelling. Which raises the posibility of renovating this house as the second dweeling and building another small dwelling on the property for multi gen living or additional rental income.
There is no reason a modest post-war house must remain a period piece, espeically one in such bad condition and with only the timber flooring and decorative ceiling looking ok surface level. Some houses of this era were poorly built, so replacing them is sometimes the better choice.
So, is this a case where you retain the house and keep the land, retain the house and build another small second dwelling or knock it down compltely and buy overpriced land and a big building price tag, well that depends on who you are.
