WESTLAKE This area today is part of Stirling Park, Yarralumla. In 1925 the population of the park area was 700. People lived in three single men's tent camps, The Gap Cottages and Contractor John Howie's settlement consisting of 25 timber cottages and a Hostel Camp for his single men. Howie's men built the Hotel Canberra, Capitol Hill Hostel, first lot of Causeway cottages, Masonic Lodge at Acton (became Russell Hill School and is now Ainslie Hall in Corroboree Park) and a number of other local buildings. Men living in the camps and The Gap cottages worked on the sewer, Provisional Parliament House & surrounds. By 1928 the camps were gone and only 13 of Howie's cottages remained. Howie's cottages were removed by the end of 1931 and the last Westlake Cottage was sold in 1965.
THE GAP COTTAGES, WESTLAKE - LATER KNOWN AS WESTLAKE (61 cottages - number 21 missing)
58 ADAMSON, Francis nurseryman
ARMSTRONG, Catherine & Henry hd & pipelayer
AVERY, Albert bricklayer
46 BAKER, Alice & Percy hd & pipelayer
24 BARBER, Lance boilermaker
BEADMAN, Annie & Ernest hd & labourer
25 BOX, Linda & Ernest hd & leading hand
36 BRANDER, Amy & John hd & labourer
22 BRILL, Gladys & Leslie postmistress & carpenter
14 BRINKMAN, Arthur labourer
34 BROWN, Christina & Sidney hd & camp caretaker (first tenant Arbuckle)
24 BROWN, James labourer
28 BUDD, Helen & George hd & gardener
24 BUTLER, Thomas painter
50 BUTCHER, Lucille & Aubrey hd & plasterer
9 BRYANT, George labourer
53 BYRNE, Margaret & Raymond hd & motor driver
13 CAMERON, Isabella & Walter hd & carpenter
40 CAMERON, James carpenter
CHAMP, Hannah, Joseph & Samuel hd, labourer & labourer
45 CHATHAM, Elizabeth & William hd & labourer
(previous tenant Oakley)
31 CLEAVER, Alice & Horace hd & car driver
31 CLEAVER, Mary Ann & George hd & labourer
16 CLOWRY, Edith & Francis hd & carpenter
COREY, Sarah & Ernest hd & labourer (Ernie is the "most highly decorated" man in World War 1. His medals are in the Australian War Memorial and he hailed from the Cooma district.
CUNNINGHAM, Ida & Francis hd & nurseryman
Briar Farm DAY, Frances & Charles hd & labourer
59 DE SMET, Gladys & Eugene hd & chauffeur
15 DUFFUS, Mary & Alexander hd & labourer
49 DWYER, Harry bus driver
44 EDWARDS, May & Alfred hd & labourer
54 EDWARDS, Mary & John hd & labourer
17 ERIKSON, Reta & builder (Mrs Erikson was Mess Caterer to Old Tradesmen’s Mess in 1927)
c/o PO ESSON, Harry labourer
29 GATES, Jane & Robert hd & carpenter
GINN, Eileen hd
62 GREEN, Olive & Arthur hd & car driver
HAWKE, Florence, Andrew & Henry hd, engine driver & engine driver
24 IRONS, Louisa & Robert hd & bricklayer
55 JOHNSON, Lucy, Henry & Henry hd, builder’s labourer & builder
10 KELLY, Ada & William hd & bricklayer (This family had no children and took in boarders. Mrs Kelly was known to many as Aunty Kell)
23 LAW, Esther & Robert hd & carpenter (Robert was one of the men who glued the Speaker's Chair. The glue had to be kept fluid with heat and sat on the Law's wood stove - well remembered because of the dreadful "stink".
48 LAW, Kathleen & Leslie hd & labourer
3 LANGER, Agnes & Francis hd & labourer
20 LEECH, Florence & Arthur hd & bricklayer
2 KINNANE, Betty & Patrick hd & labourer
1 KNIGHT, Alfred hd & bricklayer (lived at Howie's Cottages before moving to Westlake)
McCANN, Ann & John hd & labourer
McDONALD, Melinda & Spencer hd & labourer
4 McKISSOCK, John bricklayer
McNAMEE, Margaret & William hd & engine driver
29 McNEIL, Andrew surveyor’s foreman
47 MAKIN, Annie & James hd & carpenter
26 MEYER, Emily & Peter hd & carpenter
6 MORRIS, Dora & Albert hd & motor driver
(A Harrison original tenant)
27 MUIR, Jean & John hd & ---
10 MURRAY, George carpenter
38 O’REILLY, Ethel & James hd & labourer
56 PHILLIPS, Alberta & Walter hd & carpenter
60 PURCELL, Florence & Milton hd & motor driver
c/o PO RITCHIE, Robert labourer
43 ROGAN, Lucy & Neil hd & labourer
32 SAMUELS, Irene & Victor hd & leading hand
10 SANDILANDS, Hobart carpenter
c/o PO SHANKS, Alexander labourer
The Gap SYMONDS, Trevanion assistant architect
19 SKINNER, Helen & Robert hd & carpenter
37 THOMPSON, Ellen & Willie hd & labourer
9 TOOTELL, Olive & Jacob hd & engine driver (Jacob Tootell formed the "first" bike racing club in Canberra in the 1920s)
52 WARREN, Eva & Robert hd & gardener (previous tenant R Skinner)
58 WHITE, Mary & Radick hd & ganger
57 WHITE, Maud & Thomas hd & carpenter
33 WILLIAMS, Susan, William jr & William hdpainter & foreman
40 WOODMAN, Laura & Edward hd & foreman
HOWIE'S COTTAGES, WESTLAKE
3 DINNERVILLE, Caroline & Lawrence hd & boilermaker - later moved into 15 Westlake & then to Mt Stromlo
13 FREEMAN, Ruth & Arthur hd & watchman
KELLY, Lucy & William hd & labourer
MILLER, Ethel & Harry hd & office cleaner
PATRICK, Jeanie hd (Mrs Patrick and her husband Patrick lived in 1 Howie's cottages and had a large family of children. Her husband was one of the men who represented Howie in Canberra. She died in early 1929 in her home. She was 42. Her husband at the time was in Sydney looking for work - the Great Depression started in Canberra after the opening of Parliament in May, 1929. She is buried at St John the Baptist Church at Reid.
2 ROSS, Grace & George hd & labourer
10 SHEEHAN, Lucy & Raymond hd & labourer