ACT Heritage Library Manuscript Collections

HMSS 0410 Frank Rule's Riley Newsum Prefab Houses Project 

Scope and Content Notes 

Francis Eugene Rule (1896-1982) was a carpenter and joiner before enlisting in the AIF in 1916. He was wounded by shrapnel in 1917 and returned to Australia as medically unfit. He recovered to play Rugby League for North Sydney and in 1921 was selected for the Kangaroos team to play England. He turned down the trip because he had just won a contract to build private houses, but subsequently represented NSW against Queensland and New Zealand.

From 1936 to 1939 Frank worked for a concrete construction company in Sydney, then joined the Civil Construction Corps and assisted in building at Tocumwal and at Wagga army base. From the end of World War 2 until his retirement in 1961 he worked for the Commonwealth Department of Works in Sydney as a maintenance supervisor. In this role he was sent, with Mr W I (Bill) Chittendon, to oversee the modification and construction of a type of prefabricated house made by the English firm of Riley Newsum. The severe shortage of both houses and labour in Canberra at the time meant that the government was actively seeking alternatives to the standard houses to date, and importing prefabricated timber houses was seen as a viable solution. However, the design was for English conditions and needed modification before being erected in Australia. The first Riley Newsum was built at Duntroon, with 600 to be constructed at Canberra and 150 at Woomera.

Frank spent five months in England and Sweden (which supplied the timber). Frank kept a personal diary of the first 3 months of the trip, which contains considerable detail of the modification and construction of the houses. He also took photographs, particularly at the A.S.A. timber company at Amal, Sweden.

His granddaughter, Sharon Llewellyn, made the diary available for copying by the ACT Heritage Library, and also provided copies of the photographs and a letter of commendation from staff of Jennings Construction Company, who were to erect the Canberra houses. In addition she put together a brief biography of Frank Rule. Sharon also noted that the National Archives in Sydney have photographs of the Riley Newsum houses at C4786/1, barcode 6852150.

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