Property Advert of the Week: A.O. Bentley & Co - Epping and Baulkham Hills Land Releases (1962)

Below is a 1962 newspaper advertisement from A.O. Bentley & Co. promoting new land releases at Epping and Baulkham Hills.

The land release at Epping is not as close to the station as it is in reality. It is in the vicinity of the M2 Motorway and appears to be closer to Beecroft and Cheltenham.

Source: A. O. Bentley & Co. 1962. Untitled (Advertisement). The Daily Telegraph, April 14: 47. 

Property Advert of the Week: Avalon Land Release (1962)

Below is a newspaper advertisement promoting a land release at Avalon in 1962. Blocks were on offer from £1000 ($2000).

 

Source: Stapleton's. 1962. "Avalon Paradise Gardens Home Sites" (Advertisement). The Daily Telegraph, April 14: 46.

Property Advert of the Week: Normanhurst Land Release (1962)

Below is a newspaper advertisement from 1962 promoting the final release of land at the Yaralla Park Estate at Normanhurst on the Upper North Shore. The £1250 price ($2500) equates to the equivalent of $40 800 today, according to the RBA Inflation Calculator. 

 

Source: Anon. 1962. "Yaralla Park Estate". The Daily Telegraph, April 14: 57. 

Property Advert of the Week: Kirrawee Land Release (1962)

Below is a 1962 newspaper advertisement promoting a land release at Kirrawee in the vicinity of Duneba Avenue. Blocks were available from £995 ($1990) to £1795 ($3590). Adjusted for inflation (RBA Inflation Calculator) this would equate to between $30 500 and $55 000.

Source: Parkes Developments Pty. Ltd. 1962. "Fantastic Engineered Project at Kirrawee" (Advertisement). The Daily Telegraph, April 14: 49.

Property Advert of the Week: Wentworthville Land Release (1962)

Below is a 1962 newspaper advertisement promoting a land release at Wentworthville. A ten pound deposit ($20) secured your block of land. Albert & Co. Pty. Ltd (subsidiary of Stocks and Holdings) were the agents associated with land sales.

   

Source: Albert & Co. Pty. Ltd. 1962. "Wentworthville Delightful Land..." (Advertisement). The Daily Telegraph, April 14: 47. 

Property Advert of the Week: Mala Homes (1962)

Below is a 1962 newspaper advertisement from Mala Homes. House and land packages were on offer at Baulkham Hills, Pendle Hill and Liverpool. Deposits started from £595 ($1190) at Liverpool to £845 ($1690) at Baulkham Hills. 

In todays money according to the RBA Inflation Calculator , the deposit was approximately $18 200. 

Source: Mala Estate Agency Pty. Ltd. 1962. "Mala Homes" (Advertisement). The Daily Telegraph, April 14: 43. 

MILESTONE: The AMP Building turns 60 (1962)

This year marks sixty years since Sydney's first major skyscraper - The AMP Building at Circular Quay was offically opened.

Completed in 1962, the building located in Alfred Street at Circular rises 26 levels or 117 metres tall. It is regarded as the first major skyscraper to be built in Sydney following the abolition of the 46 metre or 150 feet height limit for city buildings in 1957.

Plans were unveiled in 1958. Click here to view an entry relating to the unveiling of plans. The building was designed by Peddle Thorp & Walker with construction overseen by Concrete Constructions Pty. Ltd. The following year, the Thomas Mort Woolstore which had occupied the site had demolished

It was officially opened on February 23 1962, by Prime Minister Sir Robert Menzies.

Taken by the Author (2019).

Facts of interest at the time of opening

• Construction took 21 months (excluding around three months due to industrial action and weather delays).
• First building in the world to use sea water as part of its heating and cooling systems.
• Seventh head office for the company.
• Staff Cafeteria was provided on Level 5 with seating for up to 500 people.
• Around 3000 workers worked in the building.
• Intended to cater for the demand by AMP for office space over fifty years in central Sydney.

Source: Anon. 1962. "Amenties For Big Staff". The Sydney Morning Herald, February 26: 9 (AMP Building Supplement).

Observation Deck

Source: Anon. 1962. "Observation Deck For Tourists". The Sydney Morning Herald, February 26: 10 (AMP Building Supplement).

At the time of opening, Level 26 featured an observation deck that was open to the public. Years later it was converted into the boardroom for the AMP Board.

Below are a few photos that I took during Sydney Open in 2004 when it was opened to ticketholders.

 

AMP Building & Quay Quarter Development

The AMP Building will undergo restoration and revitalisation works this year and will continue through to 2024.

1962: TAA Terminal opens at Sydney Airport

Source: Trans Australia Airlines. 1962. "TAA opens new, Jet-Age Sydney Airport Terminal" (Advertisement). The Daily Mirror, May 16 1962: 14. 

Trans Australia Airlines (TAA) was an airline established by the Federal Government in 1946 to operate domestic passenger services within Australia. It operated under this name until 1986 when it was renamed Australian Airlines and was merged with Qantas in 1993.

In 1962, TAA undertook a significant upgrade of its terminal at Sydney Airport at a cost of £150 000 ($300 000) which doubled the space of the terminal and improved passenger comfort and capacity. The new layout separated departures from arrivals along with an upgraded baggage handling system. Passengers waiting for flights could purchase a meal, snack or drink from a coffee shop or buffet. In addition there was an airconditioned dining room for passengers and visitors awith a flight deck to view arriving or departing aircraft.

Also the new terminal had a new phone service where passengers could be paged and receive phonecalls at points located around the terminal.

Above: The 1962 TAA Terminal Building as viewed from above on Google Maps, which is currently part of the Qantas (T3) Terminal. 

The Terminal was located in what is now the southern end of the T3 (Qantas) Terminal. In 1974, the terminal was handed over to East-West Airlines after TAA opened a new terminal next to the building on its northern side. However it was intergrated into the T3 Terminal. Gates 18 and 19 are located at the rear of the building. 

Remember This? The Dust Storm of 1962

Sydney is subjected to Dust Storms from time to time, especially in periods of drought. Most readers would remember the major dust storm of 2009 and also more recently in late 2018. In the Black Summer Fires of 2019-2020, dust was even mixed with bushfire smoke. 

On May 22, 1962, north westerly winds blew dust from central Australia into Sydney. While the storm was minor compared to 2009, visibility dropped to less than a mile. I remember in 2009, visibility was down to 100 metres at its worst (akin to fog). 

The Daily Telegraph published a full page feature on May 23, 1962 including a large photograph taken from Bent Street, North Sydney showing the city obscured by the dust.  The Sydney Harbour Bridge was visible . The distance from the location of the photograph to the Harbour Bridge was about two kilometres suggesting that visibility had dropped to around two kilometres. 

The "Darkness at noon" was probably exaggerated. 

 

1962: Double Decker Carriages

Sydney's Tulloch carriages were the first double decker carriages to operate in 1964 on the rail network. They could also be integrated with the "red rattler" carriages.

A train comprising of only double decker carriages was still a decade away when this article about double decker trains was published in The Sun Herald in 1962. The first Tulloch carriages were intended to be on the rail network in 1963, but had to wait a little longer.

Reporter Bob Johnson visited the workshops at Rhodes and was shown around a concept model. As you read through the article, he presented a positive review of what Sydney rail commuters were expecting. Compared to double decker buses, navigating the stairs to either the upper or lower deck was never going to be a challenge.

And it was seen as addressing overcrowding and capacity constraints on the existing rail network, though studies in recent times suggest single deck trains have lower dwell times and henceforth, more trains can operate.

Most of the article from The Sun Herald (September 30, 1962) can be read below:

Remember this?: AMOCO Petrol Station at Sans Souci opens (1962)

Remember This? is back for the Summer.

The corner of Rocky Point Road and Russell Street in Sans Souci is occupied by a BP Petrol Station. Its origins date back to 1962 when it opened as an AMOCO petrol station. Below is a full page advertisement to promote its opening.

Source: Anon. 1962. "Untitled" (Advertisement). The St George and Sutherland Shire Leader, November 7: 8.

For the next two weeks, we will publish on Tuesday with Christmas Eve and New Years' Eve falling on those days. You will be able to find out how Sydney marked Christmas in 1994 and welcomed in 1995.

1962: The Genesis of Westfield Miranda

Westfield Miranda is among Sydney's most famous shopping centres. In 2019 the shopping centre has around 450 stores anchored by: David Jones, Myer, Big W, Target, Coles, Woolworths, ALDI, JB Hifi and Apple.

Source: Anon. 1962. "New Shopping Centre". The Sydney Morning Herald, October 18: .

It also includes a dining precinct and Event Cinema complex.

The centre also has a rich history, which lives on the reference to Sutherland Shire residents by its original name of Miranda Fair.

Did you know that the centre was not originally a Westfield shopping centre?

In 1962, the Myer Corporation (Myer), the parent company of Sydney department store chain Farmers unveiled plans to build a regional shopping centre on nine acres of land near Miranda railway station on the Kingsway.

The centre would include a Farmers department store, Woolworths Supermarket and variety store, 16 speciality stores and a public library.

Estimated cost was 2.5 million pounds ($5 million dollars) with an anticipated completion date in 1964.

Upon completion, it was anticipated to be the second largest regional shopping centre in Sydney after Warringah Mall (under construction) which had fifty stores at its opening in 1963.

Property Advert of the Week: George Hudson homes advertisement (1962)

George Hudson Homes were offering homes for a 460-pound deposit at Blacktown in the early 1960's. Ex-servicemen were promised special conditions and you would only have to wait two weeks to move in.

Source: George Hudson Homes. 1962. "Untitled" (advertisement). The Daily Telegraph, April 14: 39.

1962: Tom Ugly's Bridge as a double deck bridge?

In 1962, there was only one crossing over Georges River to link the Sutherland Shire with the rest of Sydney - Tom Ugly's Bridge. The bridge could only carry three lanes of traffic. The postwar years saw a boom in the population and congestion on the bridge approaches was becoming an ever increasing problem.

Source: Anon. 1962. "Engineer proposes an answer to the chaos". The St George and Sutherland Shire Leader, February 8: 1. 

One engineer - James Stewart had a plan that would allow for an additional three lanes built atop the existing lanes of the bridge. It was an efficient proposal, but the challenge would have been with the approaches to the bridge. This may have had implications on both sides of the bridge as we see it today. 

   

Source: Anon. 1962. "Cars could drive over the top of Tom Ugly's". The St George and Sutherland Shire Leader, February 8: 3. 

It was not until 1987, that a second bridge was built roughly parallel to the existing bridge - Georges River Bridge which would carry southbound traffic on the Princes Highway, allowing tom Ugly's Bridge to carry northbound traffic only. 

Also, he suggested a rail line traveling from Caringbah to Rockdale to relieve congestion on the single deck Como Bridge with the tracks incorporated into the soon to be built Captain Cook Bridge. He felt that while tenders had closed, the design could be modified. The line would have followed the corridor for the F6 (Southern) Freeway and rejoined the main Illawarra line at Rockdale. This would have led to significant reductions in commute times on the Cronulla branch line and provided South Coast services a second route through Southern Sydney.

Property Advert of the Week: Bayview Estate, Peakhurst (1962)

This week, I share with you a real estate advertisement by V.S. Lovett promoting the sale of forty housing blocks at Peakhurst. This is now the suburb of Peakhurst Heights.

Source: V.S. Lovett. 1962. "Bayview Estate" (Advertisement). The Daily Telegraph, 

April 14: 48.

Property Advert of the Week: Sunrise Estate, Kingswood (1962)

This week, I head to Kingswood where 590 pounds landed you a dream plot of land in 1962. The agents Ronald R. Keed & Co did make an epic error in referring to Kingswood as Kingsford. I was fooled to start with when I saw this one, thinking that the advertisement was for land in eastern Sydney. Read the small font towards the bottom and notice that the Great Western Highway is the meeting point for a sales representative. It's a case of Go West my friends. No chance of getting away with that error today.

 

Source: Ronald R. Keed & Co. 1962. "Land...Kingsford" (Advertisement). The Daily Telegraph, April 14: 48.

SYDNEY TRANSPORT VISION: Southern Sydney Road & Rail Transport Vision (1962)

Source: Anonymous. 1962. "Engineer proposes solution to the chaos". The St George and Sutherland Shire Leader, February 8: 1. 

In 1962,  engineer James Stewart in the Sutherland Shire drew up a vision to improve transport across the city's southern suburbs. His idea was straightforward

*Build a second road deck over the existing Tom Uglys Bridge. He claimed it could be done in 20 days with six men.
*Use the F6 Corridor to build a new heavy rail line linking Rockdale with Caringbah and be incorporated into the new Taren Point Bridge. For Cronulla rail commuters, this would lead to a big reduction in travel times to and from the city.

The new rail link would have also eliminated the need to build what is now the current rail bridge at Como, but I think this was inevitable in terms of providing a smooth service between the South Coast and Sydney.

Property Advert of the Week: Banksia Land Sale (1962)

This week's property advert sends us into the Rockdale area where in 1962 blocks of land in Chestnut Drive, Oak Place, Tamarix Cresent and Shaaron Court.

Source: J. K. Callinan Estate Agent & Tome Bros Estate Agents. (1962). Land Auction Sale: Rockdale" (Advertisement). The St George and Sutherland Shire Leader, November 28: page unknown.

Property Advert of the Week: Lend Lease Housing Village Advertisement (1962)

Here is a property advertisement straight out of a local rag (St George and Sutherland Shire Leader) from 1962. Though the demonstration village was out at Carlingford, locals in Sydney's south were given an invitation to check out the homes that they could build, including the three-bedroom Beachcomber.

Source: Lend Lease Homes. 1962. "Lend Lease Homes at the 1962 Demonstration Village Carlingford (Advertisement)". The St George and Sutherland Shire Leader, February 1: 10.