TARA, 3-5 Greenowe Avenue, Elizabeth Bay
“Fellow Australians, it is my melancholy duty to inform you officially that in consequence of a persistence by Germany’s invasion of Poland … Australia is also at war,” declared former Prime Minister Sir Robert Menzies on 3rd September 1939.
As result Europe, Australia and the world were plunged into chaos.
About 39,000 Australian lives were lost in World War II (1939-1945), work and building projects dried up, with the economy and our finances devoted to manufacturing war machines. Manpower was diverted and resources purloined. At 3 Greenknowe Avenue the project now known as Tara was lodged on 30th April 1941 and approved by council for construction on 21st May 1941. Today, a large vacant block behind the current block remains vacant and is used as a car park. It is not clear how this occurred. A second stage may have been considered, resources may not have been available due to wartime restrictions or engineering concerns may have intervened.
New research of the City of Sydney Council archives reveals Tara was originally named Texas and was designed by Dallas Edward Walsh. The reason for the original building name is unknown. He had been an architect since 1923. From his office at 4 Castlereagh Street , Sydney, he also designed Glenelg apartments nearby at 37 Roslyn Street and significant alterations to the Rose Bay Methodist Church. The engineer for Texas, now Tara, was Mr E.C Everingham, responsible for the foundations and reinforced concrete floors etc.
A recent inspection of council’s archival site files and its building inspector’s cards note that an “application to erect block of flats second section“ was made on 12th May 1941, and on 16th May; “inspected part excavations of foundations … on very soft rock.”
Work may have stopped due to uncertain foundations, or the second section referred to may have been a reference to the Greenknowe Lane side of the apartments but, in any event the final building inspector’’ card entry notes: “13th March 1943 half of the building only completed”, indicating wartime events may also have had an effect on the proposed work schedule.
The Twentieth Century Heritage Society of NSW notes: “Tara, … demonstrates the changes wrought in twenty five years when it is compared to its illustrious neighbour [Kingsclere]. Similarities of height and mass, window proportions and brickwork, however, mean that the relationship between the two is relatively harmonious. Its Functionalist (Moderne) exterior is punctuated by a Tudorish arch above the main entry off the laneway.”
By Andrew Woodhouse
Heritage Solutions
