Original post 9 January 2015, updated 2024 :

This is a #goldrush #prefabricated #corrugatediron house, one of two pairs sitting mostly unnoticed on #brunswickroad #brunswick. James Blackburn Jnr is credited as architect, who somehow put together wide-gauge iron from Britain, over a timber frame of possibly Asian origin (Singapore a likely source) in 1854. This was gold rush time, when housing was scarce, and many people lived in tents. Unlike other prefabricated iron houses, they’re lined internally with brick, and they were pretty spacious, with four big rooms and a detached kitchen. They were built by Presbyterian Minister William Jarrett, probably to house teachers at an adjacent school, now long gone.

By the 90s, three of them had been clad in brick, variously altered and dilapidated, and then in 1997 a new owner built an apartment block taking up most of the rear gardens, but also fully restored the three cottages, with works by @helen_lardner, and built matching rear extensions, and put hedges along the front; so they all match. The big multi pane windows and the verandah details are unusual so I’m guessing they came with the package (the heritage listings arnt too detailed). The first photo is no. 189, at the western end, which was never so altered, and restored separately. It looks very nice inside, apparently much is original or at least Victorian, pics from a sale in 2022. I also found images of one of the restored ones, also nice, though only a little back yard.

No 189:

The 1990s restored ones look like this :

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