By Stephen Di Ciocco
•
Richmond in the 1900s was struck by both poverty and wealth.
•
The social scale was similar to the actual landscape of the town, with the rich being on
top of the hill and the poor being in the slums.
•
The rich had so many more benefits than the poor.
•
The type of work is very different on both sides of Richmond. (poor, rich)
• Richmond’s citizens lived in a position based on their social scale/status.
• Therefore, the rich would live on the top of the hill and the poor would live at the bottom of
the hill.
• This creates the rich to live in a sophisticated and fresh life with churches and shops.
• Melbourne can see is the rich people, suggesting that Richmond wasn’t such a bad suburb
after all.
• The bottom was filled with dirty and polluted air creating and spreading diseases.
• If you were living in the slums your house would get flooded sometimes because Richmond is
close to the Yarra River.
• Therefore, these areas can get flooded often due the amount of rain fall that day.
• Sometimes these floods could damage the houses in the slums and because these people
are so poor that they cannot afford to repair their homes.
• Work was an important part in a good living condition during the early 1900s.
• The poor and rich have very different occupations.
• This is shown through the education the two groups have.
• For example, the rich would receive a sophisticated education giving them a higher
chance to get a high class job, such as, a business man, doctors or a person working in
medicine.
• Compared to the rich the poor citizens of Richmond would attend school after primary and
work in the factories.
• Having a job meant that you could pay for your house and family’s needs during the rough
living conditions for some citizens, such as, the poor.
If the rich women worked they…..
Rich
would work with their friends
Poor
women would work in the factories.
• However, when a women gets married they have a choice to make.
• …… Their choice is keep working or to become a house wife.
• The poor children had barley any time to be children because they had the responsibility
to look after their family or become wage earners by working at the factories.
• They did this because many poor families didn’t have enough money to pay for food as
well as the rent, giving them more time to spend with their families.
• As for the rich families, children could play in the back yard and not have to start work at
such a young age.
• Living with your family in the early 1900s was very tough due to the fact that a family shared a
house between 2-3 rooms.
• As well as this a house is usually shared between two families.
• This reinforces the fact that it would be very cramp in the poor family’s homes.
• The houses are not as cramped as other homes and are usually double stories and would also
be educated properly because they did not have to leave school at the age of 13 to start work.
• All these things suggest that rich families in the early 1900s could create garden parties, enjoy
food and children could play sport reserved for only the rich.
• However, they would still have descent size families but they had the space to acquire them.
Book:
Copping it sweet (state library)
Struggletown (state library)
Website:
http://richmond-living-conditions.blogspot.com.au/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/housing
Primary source
Richmond Racecourse housing commission estate