12.22pm - Day 3 Gears and Beers 3-day Canberra tour
Posted on November 06, 2020
Tocumwal Housing Heritage Precinct, O'Connor
This is one of Canberra’s secrets with many Canberrans unaware of this heritage listed housing precinct. The precinct is considered unique in Canberra for its urban planning, landscaping and social history.
As an interesting sidebar, one of the Gears and Beers guys was one of the first occupants with his parents when he was 5.
The homes were originally built in 1942, at the large World War 2 airbase in Tocumwal, NSW. They were originally built as barracks for the servicemen with their external design purposefully constructed to look like houses to help disguise the airbase as an Australian town. After the war nearly 200 of the houses were moved to Canberra to help alleviate the lack of housing during the post-war development of the city.
The eight cul-de-sacs in the precinct share access onto a community recreation area with the individual identity of each street reinforced by the street plantings. Many of the cottages retain their original hedge plantings.