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[optikestrav]

Whitlam House, Cabramatta

[optikestrav]

Whitlam House (c1959)

Cabramatta home of the Whitlam family until 1972

Whitlam’s commissioning of architect Roy Appleton to design a modern house in (then semi-rural) Cabramatta in 1956 certainly tells us something about the nature of suburban development in Sydney at that time. It provides a means of measuring how developmental practices and attitudes to architecture have changed over time, and it indicates the aesthetic values of a future prime minister for whom a major policy initiative established the idea of a national estate, that there exists cultural heritage, both natural and built, that should be recognised and managed for future generations. Charles Rice, unionmagazine.com

photos: optikestrav