Photograph - Two Workers On Scaffolding Around Fireplace Stack, Willagee Park Estate, c.1950s

Prior to 1950, the Willagee Park area was part of the Country Ward of the Melville Roads Board. The State Housing Commission realised the need for low cost housing for an increasing working class population and opened up 1400 home sites for development in the area. A neighbourhood of 600 residents was anticipated in the early 1950s, compromising of wharfies, railway men, builders and their families who would be termed generally as working class families. Sandwell and Wood, an Australian company, built the first houses and were the agents for the direction of the building of Austrian Prefabs purchased by the State Housing Commission, with Austrian labour contracted to fulfil the building project. The Austrian agent/contractor overseeing the dispatch of workers and houses was Thermobau. The contracts were for a minimum of two years after which the employee could return home, but at his own expense. The building of the prefabricated pine houses was slow to begin with due to unexpected problems. Because of the pine frames, the area was already become know as ‘White Ant City’. The prefabs from then on were fumigated and work continued. As the houses were finished, families began moving into the area from Mulberry Farm, the Melville Camps, Fremantle and surround areas.