Dacey Garden Suburb

Daceyville, in Sydney's eastern suburbs, was built in 1912 to offer affordable housing for working-class families. The suburb is named after John Rowland Dacey, a parliamentarian for the area from 1895 to 1912, who proposed the concept. This photo series shows the development of the suburb.

Low-cost housing for working-class people

Construction work on Daceyville began on 6 June 1912. The original plans for Daceyville reflected an integrated design of family homes, wide boulevard streets and open spaces with trees and gardens. The self-contained suburb would also include its own tram line, school, shops and maternity hospital.

Sand dunes and sandy scrub land gave way to roads and cottages. By August 1915, 104 homes had been completed and in 1920 the last rental cottage was finished, bringing the total number of houses to 315, just over one-fifth of the original planned cottages.

A bird's eye view of the plan

In 1915 a large hall was completed to be used as a picture theatre and six new combined shops and dwellings were being built. In the following year a grocery, drapery, butcher and confectionery store opened. Daceyville Public School opened in 1917, replacing the infants school which operated from 1914.

Building in the suburb had slowed down by 1917 due to the “acute financial position”, which may be a reference to the financial impact of World War I.

New streets, such as Major General Bridges Crescent and Captain Jacka Crescent, were named after Gallipoli heroes. Sergeant Larkin Crescent and Colonel Braund Crescent were named after two members of Parliament who were killed at Gallipoli.

In 1916 the Lands Department requested that the Housing Board make 50 cottages available for returned incapacitated soldiers and soldier’s widows. These changes associated Daceyville with World War I rather than low cost housing for workers.