During the 1870’s and the 1880’s when Australia’s prosperity was booming in many different ways – agriculturally, industrially, economically and socially. No longer was it simply a repository for criminals and their minders. Free settlers were arriving by the thousands to be a part of this wealthy nation. The Gold Rush had already been in full swing for a few years and it seemed prosperity was in Australia to stay.

In the Victorian Free Classical period of Architecture, there was a great celebration of liberation from the shackles of binding conformity and all sorts of experimental and eclectic representations of ‘free’ form in architecture were springing up all over the place, both in public and private buildings. There was great optimism everywhere, and it seemed that the austere and confining forms of architecture in the past no longer applied. This was a time of liberation, wealth, ostentation and joyous freedom.

Now, it was time to take the ‘Free’ form and make it more detailed still. And the reason it was possible to do this was largely because of the introduction of cast-iron to the building industry. Before 1833, much of the cast-iron that we used in Australia had to come out from England. By the late 1940’s however, Australia had enough iron-ore of its own to warrant a smelter in New South Wales (Mittagong).

Couple the now readily-available cast-iron with a new interest in verandahs and the result was Victorian Filigree, or ‘iron-lace’ as it came to be know, though strictly speaking the ‘lace’ was not always made of iron. There were many examples of it in wood as well. Because of the new wealth in the nation and the desire to express that, verandahs were no longer limited to just one storey at the lower level of the house. Now, they were double or even triple storeys, and decorated with much of the beautiful filigree work that has defined the time. And because there was so much of it in new buildings of the time, it soon became representative of its own Australian time – however, there are examples of it in other parts of the world too, notably New Orleans and some parts of the Caribbean.

In places of extreme heat, the importance of verandahs couldn’t be over-emphasised. They shaded the house from the extremes of the sun and provided a cooling, shaded area protected from the heat. This was one of the reasons that filigree on verandahs was so popular in Queensland – there were so many verandahs already.

Filigree was also used on iron gates, iron staircases (particularly the spiral staircase) and to enhance corners and doorways and with the introduction of the filigree catalogues, it was a great way to add finesse, style, extra shading and lightness in material to verandahs on free-standing houses and buildings as well as on terraces. A leisurely stroll through the older streets of Glebe, in Sydney, will take you past many a grand filigree terrace.