Railway Houses built by the Economic Duplex Building Block Co (c.1924-1926)

Location

Peterborough (c.1924), Tailem Bend (c.1926), Ucolta

Construction Type

Concrete beams cast on top of pier footings. Walls were an early form of precast blocks stacked to ceiling height. A ring beam was then cast atop the walls.

History

In 1924, following his move to the railway town of Peterborough in South Australia’s mid-north, the son of a former partner in the failed Adelaide based Duplex Building Company (refer Parkside Houses), Bert Dennis, launched the Economic Duplex Building Block Company and recommenced the use of the concrete house building method developed by his father. The new Company won a contract to build houses in Peterborough West for the South Australian Railways, and subsequently built further houses to the same design at Tailem Bend and along the Broken Hill to Port Pirie railway, including at Ucolta. Up to 110 houses were built at Peterborough.

According to Dennis’s grandson, cinders from the locomotives was used as the aggregate in the concrete mix.

Examples of the houses can be found on Railway Terrace at Peterborough, Webb Street at Tailem Bend and at Ucolta.

The first 2 rows of cottages to be built at Tailem Bend under the new railway scheme. (1926) Photograph by Alfred J Gibbons, Murray Bridge. Reproduced in the Chronicle, May 8, 1926. State Library SA B3422

Map

Heritage Listings

Not listed

Current Use

Residences

Sources

Newspaper reports

Personal communication with Joe Dennis.