This era generally includes the period from the end of World War II in 1945 until 1960. With most resources focused on the war effort during World War II, very little domestic building work was undertaken throughout Queensland in the early 1940s. The postwar era, also known as the Baby Boom era, saw a tremendous growth in housing construction generally. Demand for housing peaked in the immediate postwar years, which were characterised by high marriage and birth rates due to the return of servicemen and women from overseas.
Typical postwar house features
The postwar era house form and layout were influenced by shortages in materials and labour, and as a result they tend to be very modest in scale. Generally buildings are asymmetrical and plain without decorative embellishment or extraneous spaces such as verandahs.
Shortly after peace resumed in 1945, the Australian Government lifted its wartime control of building activity, which had been imposed under the National Security (Building Operations) Regulations. However, it took industry and suppliers of materials some time to return to full production. Due to labour shortages and the limitations in the supply of materials, particularly timber, there was a need to manage the use of these resources.
In 1945, the Queensland Parliament rushed through legislation to ensure equity of access to housing across the whole community by controlling the availability of building materials for designated building operations. The Australian Government also exercised control by removing the need to obtain a permit for houses below a certain value.
These controls and rising costs encouraged homeowners to construct small, efficiently planned houses with minimal embellishment. Because of their simple form and lack of decoration, houses of this era are often referred to as “austerity” style. They were also known as “Housing Commission” or “war service” homes.
The average home had five main rooms:
- two bedrooms
- a living room
- a dining room
- a kitchen.
Laundries, kitchens and bathrooms were built close together to keep costs down. Ceiling heights were reduced for the same reason, being typically nine feet (2.7m) high. Laundries were still often located on the back verandah, as they had been in the 1930s.
Inspiration for these houses often came from standard sets of plans, widely available in contemporary publications such as newspapers or magazines like Home Beautiful. Organisations, including banks and government housing bodies, provided such standard plans, often complete with blueprints for construction. As a result, the general form and style of buildings of this era tended to have little variation. It was often only variations in the materials used and in details like window design that distinguished a house from its neighbour. However, many of these homes were on large blocks, which were often unceremoniously cleared of all trees.
In the Toowoomba Region, the most common combination of materials tends to be:
- brick and tile, featuring face brick walls with corrugated iron roofing
- timber and tin, featuring weatherboard walls and corrugated iron roofing
- fibro and tin, featuring fibrous cement sheeting walls and metal roofs.
Other variations include rendered buildings with either metal or tiled roofs and variations in roof finishes to both brick and timber buildings.
Brick and tile
The Toowoomba Region has some attractive examples of this style of house. These houses are reasonably substantial, and are single-, double- or triple-fronted with moderately pitched roofs and generous roof overhangs. Timber casement or awning windows were used, sometimes at corners and often featuring simple leadlight windows, at least at the front of the house.
Other features included entry porches, which were sometimes curved. Where fences were constructed, they were often in matching brickwork, in a simple low brick pier-and-panel form.
Timber and tin
This design is a more modest version of the brick and tile style, but still features a low-to-moderate pitch roof in a stepped hip form. Generally these houses are lowset on stumps and typically clad with narrow chamferboards.
Fibro and tin
Less common in our region than in other parts of Australia, fibro and tin houses are similar in form and detail to the timber and tin variations of this style.
The modesty and small scale of these houses can make them difficult to extend and alter without substantial change to their character. Inspiration from larger homes of this era can provide guidance. The most successful additions are those that maintain the simple hipped forms and modest decorative detail typical of these homes. The low-to-medium roof pitch and hipped form do not tend to suit attempts to add the deep verandahs and decorative timber work of earlier-era homes.
However, the plain interiors of this era, often fibro, can be easily adapted to modern layouts and finishes. The most successful renovations of postwar era homes tend to focus on creating larger new spaces, located mostly at the rear of the house. This ensures that the modest streetscape character of the house is retained, with the surprise of comfortable interiors behind.
Adding decorative windows, small entry porches or new fences to match the house style and materials were typical of the changes made to these buildings by homeowners of this period as more materials and money became available. Small changes like these, made with the appropriate materials and details, should ensure your home reflects its original history as a modest postwar home.
Fences
Postwar austerity-style homes tend to have very low fences in either post-and-rail style with chain mesh, or infill or low brick or render to match the house materials. In this era, it was also common to have no fence at all.
Typical postwar colour scheme
Technology allowed a greater selection of colours in the postwar era. However, exteriors remained relatively modest, perhaps as there were few features to highlight in this austere era. Bolder colours, including reds and turquoise, often featured in the interiors.
Typical colours include:
- Ice Blue – walls, fascias
- Lemon – window sashes and surrounds
- Royal Blue – gutters, sills, timber stairs
Typical postwar garden features
Postwar era gardens varied in style to suit the taste of the occupant, but they often had futuristic touches. The front garden was generally characterised by a large area of lawn with brightly coloured flower beds and shrubs with one or more ornamental trees. Paths were usually plain or painted concrete, or occasionally crazy-paved in stone or stone veneer. A new appreciation of the outdoors is reflected in the paved areas and patios of this era.
Cars became more common, with carports, garages and driveways often incorporated into the garden with screens, trellises or hedge planting at the side or rear of the house. The backyard retained much of its utilitarian use, commonly featuring a vegetable garden, citrus fruit trees, a rotary clothesline and shed. Plant varieties were varied, but tended to be showy and bright, with native plants interspersed between.
Further reading
- Apperly, Richard, Irving, Robert & Reynolds, Peter, 1994, A Pictorial Guide to Identifying Australian Architecture Styles and Terms from 1788 to the Present, Angus & Robertson An imprint of Harper Collins Publishers, Australia
- Associated General Publications Pty Ltd, Sixty Home Plans, Seventh edition 1951, NSW
- Brouwer, Catherine, Landscape Architects, Draft 5 Toowoomba and Region Gardens Heritage Advisory Note, 23/8/2010
- Cuffley, Peter, 2007, Australian Houses of the Forties and Fifties, The Five Mile Press Pty Ltd, Victoria Queensland Housing Commission, House Plans, The Commission, Brisbane, April 1959, page 42, Design T 110, One Search website, State Library of Queensland.
- Evans, Ian and The National Trust of Queensland, The Queensland House – History and Conservation, The Flannel Flower Press Pty Ltd, Queensland
- Evans, Ian, Caring for Old Houses, The Flannel Flower Press Pty Ltd, Queensland
- Evans, Ian, Lucas, Clive, Stapleton, Ian, More Colour Schemes for Old Australian Houses, The Flannel Flower Press Pty Ltd, Queensland
- vans, Ian, The Australian Home, The Flannel Flower Press Pty Ltd, Queensland
- Rechner, Judy Gale, 1998, Brisbane House Styles 1880 to 1940: A Guide to the Affordable House, Brisbane History Group, Qld
- Stapleton, Maisy and Ian, Australian House Styles, The Flannel Flower Press Pty Ltd, Queensland
- Toowoomba City Council, The Toowoomba House – Styles and History, Cranbrook Press, Toowoomba, Qld