The Haberfield Association - Why is Haberfield Special

Haberfield is special for many reasons:

The Federation Suburb

Haberfield was established as an estate in 1901, the year of Australia's Federation. It was built following the overseas Garden Estate movement, which was a reaction to closer, 'insanitary' settlements of the earlier suburbs. When establishing the estate, Richard Stanton used the slogan "Slum-less. Lane-less. Pub-less." This indicated that he was designing a 'genteel', residential suburb of free standing brick houses which did not need back lanes because every house was sewered.

The Architecture

Each house in Haberfield was an architect-designed 'detached' double-brick house i.e no terraces, on its own block of land of typically, 50' x 150' (15 m x 45 m). More than 700 of the houses were designed by the same architect, J. Spencer-Stansfield. No two houses are alike, although there are many common themes throughout the suburb. The roofs were either slate or the distinctive orange, unglazed Marseilles tiles. All had front verandahs although some have since been converted into extra rooms. Many feature ornate timber details, leadlight windows and distinctive tile patterns on verandahs and in bathrooms.

The Streets

The first few streets in Haberfield were given names of the members of the first Federal Cabinet, viz. Barton, Kingston, Forrest, Turner, Deakin, and Dickson. The whole suburb was developed by the 1920's. For more details, look here

Status

Today, Haberfield is on the Register of the National Estate. Haberfield was the first suburb recognised as a Heritage Conservation Area. This means that all new buildings, or external alterations to existing buildings, must be in keeping with the character of the suburb.

Some other reasons why Haberfield is special:

The community strength. See current projects
The ability of the community to band together for the good of Haberfield. See recent projects

Here are some early photographs of Haberfield taken before the First World War and some recent photographs of the suburb.

"Heritage isn't something you can buy or build - the best we can do is recognise if, love it, live with it, and hopefully - pass it on" Penny Pike - Ashfield Council's heritage advisor. [Haberfield is within the Ashfield local government area]

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