History of Ashmore Estate

Gadigal Country

The traditional owners of the land around Alexandria and Erskineville are the Gadigal, also known as Cadigal and
Caddiegal. Gadigal Country extends along the southern side of Warrang (Sydney Harbour), from South Head to Petersham.

Prior to British invasion, the Country of the Gadigal sustained lives and communities for countless generations,
providing a storehouse of resources from not only the coastline, harbours, and rivers but also the freshwater wetlands
and dunes. Aboriginal presence around this area is evident through the presence of stone tools, middens, grinding
grooves, and rock art, while community histories preserve knowledge and stories relating to the region. Of the clans
located within the Sydney region, the Gadigal people were among those most severely impacted following the arrival of
British colonists. Aboriginal communities in Sydney and the wider area were decimated in the early years of
colonisation, not only by the arrival of the invading British, who sought to kill the native inhabitants and claim their
land, but also by their diseases, with smallpox wiping out almost half of the population by 1789. Slowly, the clans in
the Sydney area were pushed from their traditional lands to camps established by the British, or the outskirts of the
colony, establishing themselves at places such as La Perouse, Salt Pan Creek, and Campbeltown.

The alienation of Aboriginal people from their land and culture has had a prolonged impact on their livelihoods, the
effects of which can still be felt today. City of Sydney’s Barani website continues to detail these effects and the
history of Aboriginal people within Sydney: https://www.sydneybarani.com.au/.

 

Industrial Alexandria

From farmland and homesteads to factories and furnaces

Following British colonisation of Sydney, the area that eventually became the suburbs of Erskineville and Alexandria was
used as farmland. It originally formed part of a land grant made to William Hutchinson, who later sold his estate to
Daniel Cooper and Solomon Levy in 1825. In these early years, the picturesque landscape was dotted with modest
homesteads and farms, with a clear view from Newtown all the way to Botany Bay.

Figure 1. A sketch by William Leigh in 1853, showing the view from Newtown to Botany Bay. The old steeple of the St
Peter’s Anglican Church can just be seen above the trees (courtesy of State Library of NSW, PXA 1987, FL1148315 /
FL1148477).

This idyllic farmland setting was shattered in the latter half of the 1800s, when the production of noxious trades such
as wool washing, tanneries, market gardens, breweries, brickworks, soap works, boiling down works (boiling down animal
carcasses to produce tallow), and glass works were banned from Sydney’s Central Business District and these heavy
industries and trades were pushed to the edges of the city.

Alexandria was considered a prime location as a new industrial centre owing to the accessibility of fresh water from the
nearby Botany Swamps and the Cooks River. The recent subdivision of Hutchinson’s original estate also created 1024 acres
of prime industrial real estate. The eastern edges of Erskineville, known as Macdonaldtown until 1893, saw similar
industrial development. Residential subdivisions that occurred in both suburbs alongside the rapid industrial
development became known and promoted as working man’s towns, populated by small cottages and high-density terraces to
house factory workers. The landscape of Alexandria had changed drastically by the start of the 20th century, forming a
patchwork of chimney stacks, tramways, factories, and brick pits, all alongside modest workers’ cottages and terraces.

Figure 2. An aerial view of the former Australian Window Glass Pty Ltd factory, which was located on Euston Road,
Alexandria, c.1940. The building in front of the factory still exists today as Bunnings Alexandria (courtesy of the
State Library of NSW, ON 447/Box 173, FL8812926 / FL8812950).

Figure 3. View along Mitchell Road (now Sydney Park Road) toward former Federal Brickworks and Texaco factory.
Today, these factories have been replaced by residential apartment buildings and Sydney Park (courtesy of Museums of
History New South Wales – State Archives Collection: Department of Main Roads; NRS 20224 Photographs of
metropolitan, country roads ferries etc., and miscellaneous operations, New South Wales.
NRS-20224-1-[18/3063]-E60_E198-54 | E139 – Mitchell Road, Alexandria – Near Federal Brick Works).

Two of these working-class subdivisions neighbouring the Ashmore Estate have been protected as Heritage Conservation
Areas (HCAs): the Malcolm Estate, located to the west of the Ashmore Estate, and the Cooper Estate, located to the east.
Each of these HCAs has retained the high-density, high-amenity, Victorian character it was designed with and highlights
the boom in residential growth in the Alexandria and Erskineville area that aligned with the rise of industry.

 

Alexandria Fire Station

Alexandria’s fourth fire brigade

The history of fire fighting in the Alexandria and Waterloo area is one of the most diverse in the entire state. Prior
to the legislation of the Fire Brigades Act in 1884, volunteer and independent brigades existed in Sydney. From 1884,
under the control of the Fire Brigade Board, the Metropolitan Fire Brigade (MFB) was formed and assumed control of many
of the existing volunteer and independent fire brigades.

The first fire brigade to be created in the Alexandria area, the Mt Lachlan Volunteer Company, pre-dated the Fire
Brigades Act and was formed in 1877. This brigade originally operated out of a station located on Raglan Street,
Waterloo, and was disbanded in 1885 to form the Waterloo Volunteer Company, which was registered with the MFB.

Figure 4. The Waterloo Volunteer Fire Bridge (formerly the Mt Lachlan Volunteer Company) with their horse drawn
manual pump, c. 1890 (courtesy of the Museum of Fire, https://www.museumoffire.net/single-post/station-focus-alexandria-fire-brigade-1877-2024).

Separate to the creation of this brigade was Alexandria’s second fire brigade, the Albion Volunteer Company. This
brigade operated from 1879 on Buckland Street, Alexandria, until it was disbanded following the formation of the MFB.

Alexandria’s third fire brigade was the Alexandria Volunteer Company, also known as the Waterloo and Alexandria Brigade.
This brigade was also located on Raglan Street, Waterloo, and was formed in 1880. Like Alexandria’s first two brigades,
this brigade was disbanded in 1886 following the formation of the MFB, and the new Alexandria Volunteer Company was
formed.

This third brigade operated out of a station on Gerard Street, Alexandria, for 20 years, seeing the establishment of a
permanent staff and crew. The move in 1907 saw the construction of a new fire station on the corner of Mitchell Road and
Ashmore Street, undertaken by the Department of Public Works and designed by renowned architect Walter Liberty Vernon.

Figure 5. Architectural drawings of the new Alexandria Fire Station located on the corner of Mitchell Road and
Ashmore Street, c.1907 (courtesy of City of Sydney Archives, A-00545747).

Vernon had been appointed as the Government Architect in 1890 and during his 21 years in the role had designed major
civic buildings, such as the Mitchell Wing of the State Library of NSW, the Art Gallery of NSW, and Central Railway
Station. Vernon’s designs for local public buildings, including fire stations, post offices, and courthouses, drew from
the scale and character of their surrounds and were frequently designed in the Federation Arts and Crafts architectural
style. Alexandria Fire Station was a good example of this style at a modest scale, featuring rough rendered external
wall with brick bases, a dominant roof form with slate tiling, and a gabled façade over the engine doors.

Figure 6. The view down Mitchell Road from the corner of Harley Street, 1929, with the new Alexandria Fire Station
on the corner (courtesy of Museums of History New South Wales – State Archives Collection: Department of Main Roads;
NRS 20224 Photographs of metropolitan, country roads ferries etc., and miscellaneous operations, New South Wales.
NRS-20224-1-[18/3063]-E60_E198-53 | E137 – Mitchell Road, Alexandria – From Farley Street looking South).

The new Alexandria Fire Station operated for almost 40 years, until it was closed in 1945. This closure came as a result
of post-World War II financial struggles and improved technology and response times, meaning that the Alexandria area
could be effectively serviced by neighbouring stations. Although ceasing operations in 1945, the station remained
standing until it was finally demolished between 1975 and 1980.

Figure 7. The Alexandria Fire Station after its closure, c.1960 (courtesy of the Museum of Fire, https://www.museumoffire.net/single-post/station-focus-no-008-alexandria-fire-brigade-1880-1945).

 

 

Metters Limited

“There is a good stove and a better stove, but the best stove is a Metters stove.”

Metters Limited was once a household name, being one of the largest producers of domestic appliances, namely gas and
fuel stoves, agricultural machinery, and bathroom fittings in Australia.

With humble beginnings in Adelaide, the company was started in 1890 by Frederick Metters, a Melbourne-born clerk and
ironmonger’s assistant, who had experience making stoves at Metters Bros, the company owned by his elder brothers.
Breaking away from his brothers, Frederick patented his own stove design in 1891, the ‘top-fire’ fuel stove.

Figure 8. Frederick Metters, 1905 (courtesy of Trove, Chronicle, 15 April 1905, 25).

Figure 9. The patent for Frederick Metters’ ‘top-fire’ fuel stove (courtesy of the National Archives of Australia.
NAA: AP476/1, 2164).

Proud of his invention, Frederick began a tour of South Australia, demonstrating his stove at country shows and fairs to
great success; within one year of receiving his patent, Frederick had employed 16 men and was making 30 stoves per week.
This number had grown by 1894, with over 5000 Metters stoves sold in South Australia alone.

Seeking to establish himself in other states, Frederick opened a sales branch in Perth, taking advantage of the Western
Australian gold rush, and soon after in 1896 he opened a factory to keep up with the demand. The new office in Perth was
leased to Frederick by Henry Langdon Spring, who, realising the potential of the young company, began working as a clerk
and was soon made a partner in 1898; from this point, the business became known as Metters and Company.

The financial crash of the late 1890s and subsequent protective tariffs on imports opened the field for Metters and
Company to move into the eastern states. Establishing a factory on Alice Street, Newtown, and a showroom on Bathurst
Street, Sydney, in 1902, Metters and Company began producing a small range of its products, requiring material and parts
to be shipped from Adelaide for assembly. A huge boom in demand followed, requiring upgrades and expansions to the
factory, with the company purchasing 18 acres of land at the corner of Ashmore Street and Mitchell Road in 1907 to
construct a new factory, with a foundry to manufacture the required parts instead of shipping them from Adelaide. A new
showroom was opened in the same year on Elizabeth Street, Sydney.

Figure 10. Aerial view of the Metters factory, 1949 (courtesy of the State Library of NSW, ON 447/Box 063, FL8808739
/ FL8808756).

In the same year that the new factory was constructed in Alexandria, Frederick Metters sold his interest in the company
to Henry Spring, who continued to expand, re-establishing the company in 1908 as Metters Limited.

Metters Limited continued to produce stoves, including the popular ‘Early Kooka’ gas and electric stoves, and other associated kitchen
appliances throughout the 1910s and expanded its business in 1922 to produce porcelain enamelled baths, basins, and
sinks. The installation of a sand slinger moulding machine, one of the first in the southern hemisphere, meant that the
production of bathtubs increased from 6 to 40 per day.

 

Figure 11. A selection of Metters catalogues and advertisements, dated 1936, 1937, and 1959 (courtesy of National
Library of Australia, 1429951, N 643.4 M595 (left); Caroline Simpson Library, Museums of History NSW, TC 643.52
MET/1937 (centre, and left)).

Business boomed in the latter half of the 1920s, with Metters amalgamating with competing business K.F.B. Foundry Pty
Ltd to form General Industries Ltd, which sold gas, fuel, and electric stoves, baths, basins, sinks, heating stoves,
grates, agricultural equipment, windmills, tanks, and kitchenware in NSW, Victoria, Queensland, South Australia, Perth,
and New Zealand. Because of the huge demand, in 1937 Metters purchased an additional 10 acres of land neighbouring the
Alexandria factory to expand.

Figure 12. Survey of the Metters factory between 1949 and 1972, showing the different production areas of the
factory (courtesy of City of Sydney Archives, City of Sydney – City Building Surveyor’s Department,
A-00880194).

In 1962, another Metters factory was opened in Bankstown to assist with the manufacture of domestic appliances; the
Alexandria factory remained in operation but at a reduced output.

Metters continued manufacturing its wide range of products into the 1970s, before it was purchased by Walloo Pty Ltd in
1972. Another sale of the company in 1974 to Email Pty Ltd saw the liquidation of factories and land, including the
Alexandria factory. By this point, the factory had been largely remodelled, with none of the original 1907 buildings
remaining.

Further alterations to the site occurred in the 1980s, with the construction of new commercial warehouses that have now
been demolished to make way for the Park Sydney and Ashmore Estate residential developments.

 

Substation No. 101

Powering the neighbourhood since 1919

Electricity was an exciting commodity in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Sydney’s first examples of permanent
electric lighting at Redfern Railway Terminus in 1886 sparked a city-wide rush to establish power stations and
electrical infrastructure. Redfern Municipal Council was the first in line, constructing Sydney’s first municipal power
station, the Redfern Electric Light Station building in 1891 at the corner of Renwick and Turner Streets. The Municipal
Council of Sydney wasn’t far behind, and with the passing of the Municipal Council of Sydney Electric Lighting Bill by
parliament on 16 October 1896, the extension of electricity to the suburbs of Sydney was officially under way.

In 1898, the Municipal Council of Sydney appointed a temporary Electric Lighting Committee, which determined that the
lighting of Sydney’s streets was an urgent matter, and proposed a series of solutions for lighting systems and
infrastructure. This committee became permanent in 1900 and oversaw the construction of lighting and electrical
infrastructure, including over 300 substations by 1935.

Substation No. 101 was one of these 300, constructed in 1919 by the Municipal Council of Sydney in response to the
industrialisation of the area. It was primarily constructed to supply power to the neighbouring Metters factory, while
also reinforcing supply to the surrounding low-voltage networks.

Figure 14. Substation No. 101 next to the Metters factory, c.1949 (courtesy of the State Library of NSW, ON 447/Box
063, FL8808739 / FL8808756).

Like other substations constructed by the Municipal Council of Sydney during the early 20th century, Substation No. 101
was designed to showcase high-quality craftsmanship and design and is a good example of the Inter-War Stripped Classical
architectural style. Substation No. 101 and other substations constructed by the Municipal Council of Sydney served as
architectural statements that, along with prominent signs on the front façades, emphasised the importance of the
council’s infrastructure and electricity network.

Substation No. 101 has continued to operate for over 100 years, seeing little change to its external appearance. The
low-voltage switchboards were replaced in 1924, doubling the substation’s capacity and responding to the higher demand
for power in the neighbourhood. In 1967, the building was shortened by three metres at the rear so as not to impact on
the new warehouse replacing the Metters factory. With the construction of the Park Sydney and Ashmore Estates,
Substation No. 101 remains as the last piece of physical evidence hinting to the prior industrial use of the land.

 

Sources

• The Story of Metters. 1965.
• Gibberd, J. 2005. ‘Frederick (Fred) Metters (1858–1937)’, The Australian Dictionary of Biography. https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/metters-frederick-fred-13097/text23695.
• Heiss, A. and Gibson, M. J. 2013. ‘Aboriginal people and place’. Sydney Barani. https://www.sydneybarani.com.au/sites/aboriginal-people-and-place/.
• West Torrens Historical Society Inc. 2022. ‘The Metters Company’. Available online: https://www.westtorrens.sa.gov.au/files/sharedassets/public/v/1/objective-digitalpublications/external-website/publications/metters-company-mile-end-1891-2000-local-history.pdf.