FLINDERS St 10 Wollongong
Address 10 Flinders St, North Wollongong
Deposited Plan Lots 100, 101, 102 DP579564
GPS Coordinates -34.41438, 150.89267
Sitting rather sadly on the western side of Flinders St Wollongong is a two-storey building whose past has been something of a mystery. At some stage, it was christened the ‘coach house’ but no evidence has surfaced to verify that assertion however true it may be.
The use of house numbers was not introduced in Wollongong until after 1929. Before, and for some time after, the name of the occupant and the street name was sufficient to identify the address. Many also added a house name. At various times, street numbers changed as land was subdivided or Wollongong Council sought to simplify the house numbering system.
Even street names could change. Flinders St is also the Prince’s Highway and, in the past, has been known as the Bulli Rd, Main South Coast Rd and Fairy Meadow Rd. These variables make searching house histories confusing. On the 1877 subdivision map below, Gipps Rd is identified as Northfields Rd. The name change occurred sometime before the outbreak of war in 1914.
Charles Throsby Smith died in 1876 and his executors subdivided the remaining 200 acres of his grant. This included a 44-lot subdivision that ran along the western side of Flinders St from Smith St north to Para (Fairy) Creek.
Some allotments had been sold [in dark orange] or given away by Charles Throsby Smith prior to 1877. He had donated land for the Albert Memorial Hospital [in pink] which opened on 27 September 1864. The hospital relocated to the site of the present Wollongong Hospital in 1907. The old hospital site is now occupied by the Collegians Football Club premises.
At the auction on 3 October 1877, not all allotments were sold but buyers were found subsequently for the remaining lots. Lot 17 [10 Flinders St] was sold for 13 pounds 10 shillings to Robert McPaul, a farmer at Unanderra. [NSW Land Title 179-981 3 April 1878]
Ownership passed to William Cochrane, a farmer at Berkeley, who sold it to Samuel Smithers the younger a coal miner of Fairy Meadow. Smithers paid 30 pounds for the land. [NSW Land Title 255-775 6 September 1882] His father, also Samuel Smithers, owned land further south on Flinders St.
In 1886, Smithers the younger took out a mortgage with the Illawarra Building Society for 200 pounds. [NSW Land Titles 342-825 12 June 1886] The mortgage was discharged in 1906 and no further mortgages were recorded with the Registrar-General.
The size of the mortgage suggests that a substantial building was erected on the land. Samuel Charles Smithers [also known as Samuel Charles Robert Axworthy Smithers] retained ownership of the land until his death on 1 September 1925. His last will and testament directed that his real estate be sold but it took 18 years for the estate to be wound up. The Illawarra Mercury of 2 July 1943 advised that Frank Bevan and Sons were handling the sale of:
2-STOREY BRICK & STONE FLATS ; Flinders-street, Wollongong
BRICK COTTAGE, FLINDERS-ST. Saturday, July 10th At 11.45 a.m. Frank Bevan and Sons Licensed District Auctioneers
1— -Solidly constructed brick and stone semi-detached flats with slate roof being No. 8, Flinders St., containing large Sitting room, dining room, 2 bedrooms, kitchen, balcony and verandah, and No. 10 Flinders st., containing similar accommodation. Rental return £102/14/0 annually. Land 66 x 230.
2 - Brick cottage, No. 6 Flinders-st., containing dining room, 2 bedrooms, kitchen, storeroom, verandahs. Rental return £54/12/0 annually. Land 66 x 230.
Both properties were acquired in 1946 by the Dion family.
In 1973-1974, Flinders Street was widened, and the road level heightened. These works spelt doom for the building. The roadworks required resumption of most of the front yard which meant that the balcony and verandah were outside of the land boundary. Both the balcony and verandah had to be removed and entry to the building was below street level. Whatever dignity the building may have possessed was lost.
Demolition of the building and redevelopment of the site at that stage was likely. The owners preferred to rent the building as flats and to lease out the surrounding land for commercial uses that did not require expensive infrastructure.
The land that formerly comprised lots 17 and 18 of the original subdivision were amalgamated and re-subdivided as three lots in 1976. The building's chimneys were removed.
It will require considerable vision to repurpose and restore the building. Any information about the building or its former inhabitants would be greatly appreciated.
Author: John Shipp
December 2020
| Will of Samuel Charles Smithers 1925 | Original owner of 10 Flinders St, Wollongong |
| Probate and will of Charles Samuel Smithers 1955 | Owner of 10 Flinders St, Wollongong until 1946 |
| Subdivision Plan 44 Allotments western side Flinders St, 3 October 1877 | Original poster - Local Studies Collection, Wollongong City Library |
| Map of 44 allotments along western side of Flinders St, offered for sale 1877 | Original map- Local Studies Collection, Wollongong City Library |
