Sometimes described in the post-war years as `the housing shortage’, the nationwide effort to fix a very troubling problem has in time come to be called `the housing boom’. Undoubtedly it was a boom in demand and building. There was also a notable increase in home ownership, achieved in many cases through heroic individual effort and years of sacrifice.

Changing social attitudes offered new opportunities, but also narrowed the options. Emphasis in state housing plans was at first on rental dwellings; later there was a swing toward the sale of low-cost houses. At a time when various influencers had reduced the amount of rental dwellings, governments, banks, finance companies, building societies and housing co-ops were offering greater opportunities for home ownership. Ironically this was at a time of a jump in building input costs.

Top on the list of factors linked to rising costs were the introduction in 1948 of the 40-hour working week, and drastic increases in the cost of building materials. By 1948 an employer had to pay an unqualified building worker a higher wage than a tradesman had received in early 1946.

To keep both labourer and tradesman rationally employed the builder needed a continuous flow of materials which was a rare thing in those times. A shortage of skilled workers also meant lower quality construction and further loss of time.

Contract prices were loaded with an increasing profit margin as an insurance against unseen problems. Under commonwealth price control, builders were entitled to a 10 per cent `profit’ on the contract price. Above award payments were not recognised in price control and yet builders often found a need to pay above award salaries to ensure a reasonable output.

Unexpected costs could arise when, for example, timber flooring was suddenly unobtainable, and a higher price would then have to be paid for imported Baltic timber for flooring.

With locally made cement taking forever to turn up, a truckload from interstate was sometimes bought at nearly three times the price. When compared to 1939 prices timber flooring had, by 1948, doubled in value. Cement had risen by almost 20 per cent and clay roofing tiles by more than 25 per cent. A gallon of quality paint costing around 30s ($3) in 1939 had risen some 40 per cent by 1948.

When added to rising costs and shortages of materials the government restrictions, limiting the area of a new house to 1200 square feet (111.48 square metres) for a timber house and 1250 square feet (116.12 square metres) for a brick house, completed the recipe for an imposed design modesty.

The economical floor plan was essential; cost-saving and limitations on area made large single-purpose rooms a luxury. Verandahs and spacious porches were deleted, reducing the shade at the front entrance to the absolute minimum. Ceiling heights had been slowly reduced from the turn of the century and were now usually nine feet (2745 mm). Until the government construction restrictions were lifted in 1952 the acceptance of no-nonsense functionalism was as much an imposed state as it was a fashionable philosophy. This was the era of the great Australian Dream.

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