Kareela’s rating as the most liveable place in Sutherland Shire was due to the changing social, economic and political times in which it was developed, a book written for the suburb’s 50th anniversary reveals.
Difficult access and the hills that now provide excellent views and give the suburb its character deterred early developers, writes historian Liz Adams in Kareela – Lucky & Liveable.
These circumstances “allowed a well-planned, quiet, modern and secluded suburb with convenient and easy access to services and facilities”.
Changes which helped shape the suburb included strong building controls, developers required to provide facilities, the council keen to fund others and the federal government prepared to chip in.
Sylvan Headland, the main housing estate, was the first in the shire to be fully sewered from the outset.
Big social changes, from car ownership to university education and new workplace options for women, were occurring at the same time.
The combined forces for change created “a phenomenon probably unprecedented in Australia, producing countless benefits at the local level for those who chose to make Kareela their home,” the book says.
“Being a product of that time, Kareela was lucky indeed.”
Kareela - Lucky & Liveable will be launched in the courtyard of Kareela Village at 10am on Saturday, August 18.
Ms Adams, a Kareela resident, said the title was prompted by two factors – “liveable” from the 2016 Domain ranking of Kareela as number one in the shire and “lucky” due to the timing of its development.
“I am an historian and decided to research Kareela’s history in 2016 to capture the stories of the original residents so that a book could be published in 2018, Kareela’s 50th birthday,” she said.
“I discovered, though, that there were 100 years of settlement history.
“One of the highlights has been meeting people from the semi-rural era as well as so many long-term residents of the suburb and hearing their stories.
“Another was the discovery of evidence of long term Aboriginal occupation in a suburban Kareela street, not previously recorded.”
Ms Adams said Kareela was “a 1960s 1970s suburb – born in radical times and circumstances that have long gone”.
“It represents the changing nature of the shire after 1968 – its ‘birth date’ coincided with new council covenants and changing policies,” she said.
The introduction to the book says “The steep terrain and small blocks at Kareela have continued to preserve a low-density status so the population has remained steady at about 3200 over the decades and promises to remain so.
“With its location on a peninsula which most traffic by-passes, Kareela has been a peaceful area of low crime, spared from traffic congestion.
“House designs in Kareela were innovative, functional and economical, providing comfort, easy management and low maintenance.
“Reflecting social and economic change of the time, they were a stark contrast to homes of the previous decades, especially to housing at Kareela in its first 50 years.”
The book says the shire’s rapid development in the 1950s and 1960s was, to a large extent, due to the growing level of car ownership that created a new freedom in terms of options to purchase affordable land.
“The people who bought land at Kareela were car owners, so for them transport within and outside the Shire was both flexible and convenient, making living in the new suburb feasible.
“The release of Green Belt land made it possible.
“Purchasers at Kareela were to reap the enormous benefits of changes in local government initiatives and facilities.
“Forward-looking councillors were determined to fund more than the necessities of life.
“Financial resources had never been adequate even for roads and drainage but enterprise in land development provided the necessary funds to allow Sutherland Shire Council to embark on a transformative program of sporting, recreational and cultural developments.
“Invaluable facilities were provided in the suburb and the shire in a ‘once only’ opportunity before urban sprawl engulfed available land. federal government financial assistance in the 1970s made a difference too.
“The broader context of Kareela’s development was pivotal in determining the character of the suburb.
“The social, economic and political forces of the 1960s and early 1970s produced a huge shift in attitudes, reflected in new ideas of Australian identity, a wider appreciation of the bush, and a re-thinking of both commonly held views and community priorities.
“Kareela was lucky to develop in a period of rapidly changing attitudes to urban planning, architecture and lifestyle when post-war privations and low wages were things of the past, and secure employment a given.
“There was a transformation in taste and an expansion of possibilities that provided affordable options for the baby boomer generation of Kareela homebuilders in the late 1960s and 1970s.
“New sources of private and public finance, economical and innovative building materials and construction methods, and avant-garde project home companies meant aspirations to build a modern, affordable yet architect-designed home could be transformed into reality.
“The era of owner-builder homes was a thing of the past.
“Brick veneer homes provided an economic alternative to the costly and uniform pre-war double brick houses and a more luxurious and comfortable alternative to post-war fibro and timber homes in the Shire. It was a happy medium in more ways than one.
“Home-builders in Kareela were among the first generation of the middle and working class to have access to university education, with Menzies-era scholarships and the expansion of world class universities in NSW.
“New workplace options for women included the opportunity for employment after marriage and children.
“Rewarding careers abounded outside traditional occupations for females and, while equal pay was still a dream for most, wages improved, enabling women to contribute to financing their homes.”
- Following the launch, the book will be available from Sutherland Shire Historical Society, the Kareela newsagency and chemist, and Ms Adams – phone 9528 6981.
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