What’s old is new again

Modular homes are often thought to be a recent invention, but they’ve been in Australia at least since the immediate post-World War II years.

They were then known as prefabricated, or “prefab”, homes, some built here but most imported from England, France, Austria and Sweden.

The early 1950s saw an acute housing shortage, with the surge in migration and a need for workers’ housing in projects such as the Snowy Mountains Hydro-Electric scheme.

There was also demand for war service homes: thousands of veterans struggling to find accommodation.

The Federal Government was told of a case where 10 people were living in a garage.

Another family lived in a boatshed, paying weekly rent of £3 10s (about $100 in today’s money).

In 1950, more than 14,000 kits were imported by state governments and over 4000 shipped for the Commonwealth Department of Works.

Among the local builders, Vandyke Brothers Pty Ltd – in business since the 1920s – turned out its patented “Sectionit” homes at a Sydney factory at the rate of 20 a week.

They could be assembled on-site in a matter of days, whereas a traditional home of comparable size could take two months.

Prefabs were typically of timber and fibro, often criticised for being of low quality compared to bricks-and-mortar housing.

However, they were only ever meant to be temporary. Today, few examples remain, often on Crown land and subject to heritage orders.

Modern modular structures are far superior in design, materials and construction.

But the concept goes at least as far back as 1624, when a panelised house was shipped from England to Cape Ann, Massachusetts, as accommodation for fishermen.

In 1788, Governor Arthur Phillip occupied a timber and canvas home shipped from England with the First Fleet and assembled on the eastern shore of Sydney Cove.

So, the colony’s very first Government House… was a prefab.