John Curtin's Melbourne home on the market for first time since 1921
{yoogallery src=[images/stories/november17curtin]}
The former home of one of Australia's greatest prime ministers, John Curtin, has been listed for sale.
The 1906 Brunswick weatherboard is priced at $600,000 plus.
It was the home Curtin returned to after spending a few days in jail in 1914 for protesting against conscription during World War I.
Curtin lived in the double-fronted Fallon Street from 1912 to 1915, when in his late 20s he was the secretary of the Victorian Timber Workers Union and an organiser for the Australian Workers Union.
He stood unsuccessfully for his first parliamentary election, a state seat, in 1914.
He was elected to Federal Parliament in 1928, became prime minister in 1941 and steered the country through the World War II years until his death in 1945 of a heart attack shortly before peace was declared.
The unrenovated house – which is listed on the Victorian Heritage Register – has been owned by the same family since 1921 so many of its original period features remain.
It’s of aesthetic significance given the timber ashlar villa comes with fine detailing including the central pediment to the veranda, intact cast iron lacework and paired elongated double-hung sash windows.
It has a hipped painted corrugated iron roof return and a bullnose veranda.
It has red brick chimneys with rendered caps and plinths and paired brackets under the eave line.
The veranda has turned timber veranda posts.
It was a six-room house during Curtin’s rental.
It sits on a 463-square-metre block.
W.B. Simpson & Son's Tim Maher has it scheduled for November 26 auction.
The Creswick-born politician subsequently moved to Brunswick Road and in 1917 left Victoria for a new home with his wife, Elsie, in Western Australia.
