The middle class who were the white collar workers (for example, teachers) had satisfactory living standards in comparison to the working class however, unlike the upper class, they were not born into wealth but, rather had been born into families that had previous education that enabled them to escape the poverty trap into a less laborious workplace resulting in a dramatically greater income in comparison to the working class. They lived in leafier, airier suburbs such as southern CBD in Adelaide, Sydney CBD and within a 10 kilometre radius of Melbourne’s centre; such areas were filled with terrace houses that were quite close together. Here, pollution was further away and enabled them to not live in such unhygienic and dangerous conditions, such as overcrowded houses with poor light supply and little ventilation. Source 1 shows the middle class life in the Sydney CBD. As you can see there were many midde classes to owned small businesses and took public transport to work and back. The middle class were able to afford to live comfortably with a few luxuries. Their working conditions were less laborious and resided in what we would call the tertiary and quaternary sectors of the government system today, where work was knowledge and service based. Their jobs were comfortable and earned respect from members of the community.
But what were their houses like?
Housing in australia at the turn of the 20th century 