Historical information

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.

Significance

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.

Physical description

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.