Radio Avenue, Balgowlah, 1925-40
Scan 12.06, East View subdivision plan, 1925
Radio Avenue was created by the East View subdivision in 1925. Forty-two lots were
auctioned on Saturday 4th April 1925, fronting Radio Avenue, Lewis Street and
Woodland Street, with corner lots also having frontages to Ernest and Thornton Streets.
The lots were advertised as having “unequalled views”. They were sold on 10 per
cent deposit, with the balance in twelve equal quarterly payments at 6 per cent interest.
Twenty-one lots faced Radio Avenue. Lots 10-18 faced the west side, and lots 19 to 30
faced the east side. Most lots were 40-50 feet wide and approximately 100 feet deep.
One large area, equal to six lots between Radio Avenue and Lewis Street was
marked “Not for Sale”, with the name Brackenreg penciled on it. This suggests that the
Brackenregs, a Manly family, may have had an association with this estate before the
subdivision took place.
It appears that the majority of lots sold either at auction or shortly afterwards. These
lots were painted out in red, presumably by Robey, Hanson and Strong, the auctioneers,
and Manly’s largest real estate agency in the inter-war period. Remaining unsold lots
were lot 10 (south-west corner of Radio Avenue and Ernest Street), lots 24-30 (facing
the east side of Radio Avenue) and lots 30-31 (south-east corner of Radio Avenue and
Ernest Street; and south-east corner of Ernest Street and Woodland Street).
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Radio Avenue first appeared in Sands’ Directory in 1931. The first resident was
Andrew Sim in 1930, who was the only householder listed in Sands’ 1931 and 1932/33,
the last year the Directory was published.1
Radio Avenue may have derived its name from land in the vicinity said to have been
owned by one of Sydney’s earliest radio stations, Radio 2GB. 2GB was owned at that
time by the Theosophist Society. In the late 1920s/early 1930s the Theosophists had a
radio transmitter at their headquarters at The Manor, Mosman. They may have seen
Balgowlah Heights as a suitable location for radio facilities. However, there is as yet no
clear evidence of connections between Sydney Theosophists and land in Radio
Avenue.2 Were the Brackenreg family connected with the Theosophist movement?
Radio Avenue developed slowly during the 1930s and would still have been a graded
dirt road to a relatively isolated cluster of simple houses. The street may not have had
electricity before the Second World War (somewhat ironic, given its name).
It was not until December 1940 that Manly Council’s Health Inspector, S H ScottYoung, recommended to the Town Clerk, Les Wellings, that Radio Avenue’s lots be
given street numbers for the first time.3 This suggested some threshold of urban
development had been reached, or that local residents had successfully lobbied Council
for this basic ‘recognition’.
Mr Scott-Young’s report to Council details the owner of each lot on both sides of
Radio Avenue, presumably from details contained in Council’s rates records. From
these ownership records the following picture emerges of Radio Avenue in 1940.
On the west side, ‘from Thornton Street’ there was only one resident owner
householder, Laurence S Hudson (Lot Cor[ner] 18) given the first street number on that
side, no.2.
The other west side lots were owned as follows:
No 4 (Lot 17)
Miss C Campbell, 183 Sydney Road, Manly
No 6 (Lot 16)
Marjory M Williams, Boree Creek, NSW
No 8 (Lot 15)
Oswald E Reiher, 75 Wanganella Street, Balgowlah
No 10 (Lot 14)
Mrs E W Wigney [jewellers], The Corso, Manly
No 12 (Lot 13)
Herbert V Robbins, 2 Beatrice Street, Manly
No 14 (Lot 12)
Ditto
No 16 (Lot 11)
James Sydney Bonner, Narula, Condamine Street, Manly
No 18 (Corner Lot Eric R Atkinson, Wyhalems, Kareema Street, Balgowlah
10)
No 20 (Lot 16)
Mrs L Taylor, c/o H Taylor, Indent Agent, 75 York Street
No 22 (Lot 15)
L A Burns & L K Lindley, 5 Dolphin Street, Randwick
No 24 (Lot 14)
Mr W J Edwin Elder & Mrs Violet A Elder, Commonwealth Bank,
Manly
No 26 (Lot 11)
Lancelot G Bellette, 48 Eurobin Avenue, Manly
No 28 (Lot 10)
Mr P F Cardiff & Mrs B E Cardiff, 6 Wattle Street, Haberfield
No 30 (Lot 9)
Miss M E Hoy, 25 Bellevue Street, Manly.
It is not clear how many of these lots were vacant, or how many were rented houses
owned by absentee landlords. However, of the fourteen lots not owner-occupied, only
1
Sands’ Directory 1931, 1932/33.
See also ADB volume 7, p266, reference to Alfred Edward Bennett, manager of the Theosophist
Society’s radio station, 2GB; and ADB volume 10, pp33-34, reference to Charles Webster
Leadbetter.
3
Manly Council Health Inspector’s Reports, 1937-42, no 40/78, 13 Dec 1940.
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four belonged to owners living outside the Manly-Balgowlah area: one in Boree Creek in
the Riverina; one a city investor; and one each from Randwick and Haberfield in Sydney.
Several absentee owners lived nearby in Balgowlah, including Herbert Robbins of
Beatrice Street with two lots (perhaps built on, perhaps vacant).
James Sydney Bonner of ‘Narula’ in Condamine Street, the owner of no 16 Radio
Avenue, was the son of a former Mayor of Manly, James Bonner, after whom Manly’s
Bonner Avenue was named.
The Wigneys at no 10, who owned Manly’s leading jewelers on The Corso, were
possibly investing some of their profits in land or houses in the developing suburb of
Balgowlah.
On the east side of Radio Avenue were twenty lots, several of which (eg Lots N-J)
may have been rough scrub. Again, only five lots were owner-occupied:
No 1 (Lot cor[ner] 19)
No 5 (Lot 21)
No 9 (Lot 23)
No 19 (Lot 28)
No 23 (Lot cor[ner] 30)
Darcy C Carter
Mrs H M Alder
Andrew Sim
Mrs N N Williamson
Noel G Schauer (corner of Radio Avenue and Ernest Street)
Another two lots were owned by Mrs S E Mills who appears to have lived at Flat 3,
‘Brighton Hall’, Fairlight Street [Fairlight], rather than in Radio Avenue, although both
addresses appear in the Health Inspector’s report.
Of the absentee owners, one apparently lived in Melbourne and one in Cremorne. All
the rest lived in the Manly area, with most clustered in nearby streets such as Scales
Parade, Sydney Road, Rickard Street and West Street. One lived in Queenscliff.
R J Gunnyon of 32 West Street, Balgowlah, owned three adjoining lots which became
nos 35-39 inclusive.
Andrew Sim, the first householder in Radio Avenue, was still at no 9 (east side) in
1940.
It is also interesting to note the number of female investors with property in the street.
They included, on the west side, Miss C Campbell of Sydney Road (no 4); Marjory
Williams of Boree Creek (no 6); Mrs Wigney (no 10); Mrs Taylor (wife of a York Street
indent agent); Miss M E Hoy of Bellevue Street [Fairlight]. On the east side were Mrs A
B Timbury of ‘Borambola Flats’, Commonwealth Parade, Manly (no 11); Mrs Berryman
of Melbourne (nos 13-15); Miss Ada Thom of Cliff Street, Manly (no 21); Mrs S E Mills of
‘Brighton Hall’, Fairlight Street (no 29); and Mrs M Ransom of Abbott Street, Balgowlah
(no 31).
Several of these female investors may have been related. It was quite common in
the pre-WWI and inter-war periods for sisters and extended families to purchase
adjacent lots and adjoining houses as investments, or to inherit neighbouring rental
properties. This may help to explain the presence of interstate investors, or those from
Sydney and distant suburbs, among Radio Avenue’s owners.
An examination of Manly Council’s Rate Books for this periodwould clarify how many
of Radio Avenue’s lots were built on by 1940.
3
Radio Avenue looking north, 29 June 1946
Radio Avenue 1954
Terry Metherell,
August 2006.
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