California Guesthouse

DESCRIPTION

NameCalifornia Guesthouse TypeBuildingHotelBusinessDescriptionThe California Guest House, originally called Illawarra House, was built in 1929.

Mr Albert Orange had great plans for the Panorama Estate, and built a two-storey guesthouse called Illawarra House on the shore of the lake in The Esplanade, Oak Flats. He also built a timber wharf at Windang Street, Albion Park Rail. From here he met passengers from the Sydney train and ferried them to the guesthouse at Oak Flats. He owned the Lady Albion ferry, used for excursions around Lake Illawarra.

With the onset of the Depression in the 1930s, the project failed and the guesthouse was dismantled and transported in 1936 to Reddall Parade, Lake Illawarra South by the Chambers family. The building exists today and is known as the California. It is a private residence.

During the Depression years, land sales were slow and unemployed men squatted with their families in tents and rough dwellings made from fruit boxes nailed together and covered with hessian and a thin coating of sand and cement.

The first shop in Oak Flats was situated on the southern side of Fisher Street next to a house named Nimrod. Holiday visitors from Sydney could rent the cottage.

External LinkYour Perfect Holiday Now Lake Illawarra 1938Holiday Resorts - California 1946Goulburn Girls Drowned in Surf 1951

California Guesthouse.

Heritage Information

Heritage NSW LinkShellharbour Heritage Inventory Sheet Last edited by: Erin Tierney

CONNECTIONS

CollectionPlacesFamilyOrangeChambersLocalityLake IllawarraMaritimeLady Albion Tourist LaunchPlaceChambers BakeryIllawarra House Jetty RelicIllawarra House

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California Guesthouse