The Kew Historical Society's map collection includes a substantial number of real estate subdivision plans, mainly of Kew but also of surrounding suburbs in Melbourne. Most of the subdivision plans date from the 1920s and 1930s when the districts old homes and local farmland were being split up to accommodate residential growth in the postwar period. These early plans were assembled by a local firm, Jas R Mather & McMillan, which had an office in Cotham Road. Many of the plans, and sometimes photos, were annotated by the agents.Subdivision plans are historically important documents used as evidence for the growth of suburbs in Australia. They frequently provide information about when the land was sold as well as evidence relating to surveyors and real estate and financial agents. The numerous subdivision plans in the Kew Historical Society's collection represent working documents, ranging from the initial sketches made in planning a subdivision to printed plans on which auctioneers or agents listed the prices for which individual lots were sold. In a number of cases, the reverse of a subdivision plan in the collection includes a photograph of a house that was also for sale by the agent. These photographs provide significant heritage information relating house design and decoration, fencing and household gardens.The photograph may also be aesthetically significant depending on the importance of the photographic atelier.The ‘Eastlawn Estate’ was surveyed and ready for auction in March 1914, three months before the outbreak of World War I. Sixty-six allotments, created on the ‘order of Mr & Miss Preston’ surrounded the mansion of Woodlands in Harp Road. Woodlands formed part of the Estate, being advertised as lot 1. The allotments faced High, Station and Wright Streets, Harp and Normanby Roads, and Woodlands Avenue. Pru Sanderson in the Kew Conservation Study (Vol.2, 1988) wrote that the Eastlawn Estate ‘covered the western half of the failed Harp of Erin Estate’. Contemporary advertisements promoted the Eastlawn Estate as: ‘There will be no more convenient district nor pleasant Suburb than East Kew for the busy business man. When the Electric Tram is laid, he will be able to journey quickly and pleasantly direct from Collins Street to his home in the Eastlawn Estate in about 20 minutes’. The actual plans of subdivision were included in advertisements in The Argus and in the local newspapers."C" top left. Various annotations.subdivision plans - kew, station street, normanby road, high street, woodlands avenue, harp road, woodlands - kew

Subdivision plans are historically important documents used as evidence of the growth of suburbs in Australia. They frequently provide information about when the land was sold on which a built structure was subsequently constructed as well as evidence relating to surveyors and real estate and financial agents. The numerous subdivision plans in the Kew Historical Society's collection represent working documents, ranging from the initial sketches made in planning a subdivision to printed plans on which auctioneers or agents listed the prices for which individual lots were sold. In a number of cases, the reverse of a subdivision plan in the collection includes a photograph of a house that was also for sale by the agent. These photographs provide significant heritage information relating house design and decoration, fencing and household gardens.The ‘Eastlawn Estate’ was surveyed and ready for auction in March 1914, three months before the outbreak of World War I. Sixty-six allotments, created on the ‘order of Mr & Miss Preston’ surrounded the mansion of Woodlands in Harp Road. Woodlands formed part of the Estate, being advertised as lot 1. The allotments faced High, Station and Wright Streets, Harp and Normanby Roads, and Woodlands Avenue. Pru Sanderson in the Kew Conservation Study (Vol.2, 1988) wrote that the Eastlawn Estate ‘covered the western half of the failed Harp of Erin Estate’. Contemporary advertisements promoted the Eastlawn Estate as: ‘There will be no more convenient district nor pleasant Suburb than East Kew for the busy business man. When the Electric Tram is laid, he will be able to journey quickly and pleasantly direct from Collins Street to his home in the Eastlawn Estate in about 20 minutes’. The actual plans of subdivision were included in advertisements in The Argus and in the local newspapers.subdivision plans - east kew, eastlawn estate