The Camden Fibro Cottage and its connection to mid-century housing styles

The Camden Fibro Cottage

The humble fibro cottage in Camden in the 1950s and 1960s is integral to the town’s 20th-century history. The fibro house represents the baby-boomer era, when drive-ins, Holdens, Chiko rolls, black-and-white TV, rock ‘n’roll, and vinyl LPs were the norm.

Fibro is evocative of long summer holidays by the beach, with adolescent love, boogie boards, zinc cream and paddle pops.  

Ludwig Hatschek invented fibro in Austria in 1900 and imported it to Australia within three years. By 1916, Australia was making fibro and was only one of a few countries to use it for housing.

Fibro was made and distributed in Australia primarily by Wunderlich and James Hardie. It was cheap, easy to use, and modern.

Mid-century modern

In the 1950s, as the Burragorang coalfields expanded, the town suffered a housing shortage and fibro cottages provided one solution. Several fibro cottages were built by the New South Wales Housing Commission.

These housing types were recognized for features such as hot water systems, running water to the kitchen and bathroom, and power points throughout the house.

Camden’s simple fibro cottages provided affordable accommodation for the working man and his family. Local farms had a host of fibro houses, as they were cheap to build and fibro was a practical building material that sometimes replaced iron cladding.

Many Camden families have nostalgic memories of summer holidays at a fibro beach shack getaway on the South Coast. They were loved for their low maintenance and were easy to repair.

Charles Pickett’s The Fibro Frontier (1997) describes the 1950s fibro home style as austerity modernism. Pickett states that fibro houses combine economy, ease of construction, and buyer engagement.

Fibro was a mass-produced building material that made housing construction cheaper. It offered the working family the chance to become a homeowner through a cost-effective form of modern domestic architecture.

Camden’s fibro houses had proud owners who kept well-maintained front gardens and mowed the grass with their Victa mowers around the Hills hoist in the backyard.

Housing catalogues for fibro homes

The Powerhouse Museum and Sydney Living Museum have Wunderlich fibro catalogues that provide a valuable record of this style of architecture. In magazines like Australian Homemaker, Australian Home Beautiful, and Australian House and Garden, homeowners and builders were offered lots of advice on the advantages of fibro-cladding.

Barry Humphries, the son of a builder, has stated that fibro houses were a bit ‘declasse’ and sometimes not ‘nice’ homes, although some in the 1950s described them as ‘as modern as tomorrow’.

One characteristic of Camden fibro cottages is the rounded corners and walls, with their streamlined and modern lines, which were first manufactured in 1937.

Fibro was also used in commercial architecture in Camden and several retail and commercial properties in central Camden. Pickett maintains that the peak of fibro’s acceptance was the 1960s. From there, its popularity declined, and it was replaced by other building materials, such as brick-veneer construction.

Unfortunately, fibro has poor insulation qualities, so these cottages were cold in winter and hot in summer. Today, there are health risks from asbestos.

Conclusion

Fibro-clad houses represent an essential period in Camden’s historical development, and examples are listed in Camden’s local heritage list. Interestingly, filmmakers and artists have adopted the fibro house to signify a form of ‘retro-dagginess’ and a re-evaluation of suburbia, according to Pickett. 

Compressed fibre board has returned as a successful building material in recent years.

Renovating a fibro cottage requires care with dangerous asbestos fibres. For more information click here

Facebook comments 4 May 2023

Paquita Bugden  Was a great place to call home.

Russell OwenGrew up no 6 my parents bout one original still there 36 years

Kim Warren – EvansLooks like Burrawong cres…..Grew up at no 13, great memories 

Andrew LundyWe rented a house in this street between 89 and 91. Our place wasn’t fibro though

Rosie RussellSkye SheilSamantha Ferrero I always think of Carol’s house and garden as the ultimate perfect version of these houses

Skye SheilRosie Russell so true! She always so on top of it!

Liz HaleRosie Russell I grew up in Fibro cottage 

Kenny LittleRosie Russell no matter the houseHome is home

Darren Poss JamesLittle st Camden was the miners fibro houses down the south endGreat place to grow up 

Wendy StaceI grew up in Narellan also. Fibro homes were everywhere.

Anne WatkinsPlenty of them in Narellan too, I grew up in a fibro house.

Paquita Bugden Unfortunately all to be knocked down soon. New ‘old age’ units going u

Jean Woods MacnaughtonAlistair, your first home in Lerida was like these but full on PINK!

Updated 10 February 2025. Originally posted 29 June 2014 as ‘The Camden Fibro Cottage: a not-so-humble abode’.