Just a year after the legendary Australian rock band AC/DC celebrated its 50th anniversary, developers unknowingly demolished the modest Sydney home where the group was formed, reports Australian outlet Nine News.
Burwood Square Pty Ltd purchased the property, which was being rented out at the time, in March 2023 for AUS$5.8 million. It was only after the house was bulldozed in December of last year that the company became aware of its cultural significance, expressing “heartfelt regret” for destroying the former home of “one of music history’s most iconic bands.” A massive 114-metre-tall, 50-storey tower will be built in its place, featuring 120 hotel rooms, 48 affordable housing apartments. In the wake of its blunder, the developer says it will now add a “special space” where AC/DC fans “can gather to celebrate the band’s enduring legacy.”
Constructed from salvaged materials, the space will likely be a café, bar or live music venue. Burwood Square vowed to collaborate with “the Young family, fan groups and cultural experts to ensure our tribute is meaningful and respectful.”
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The Young family moved into the small, two-bedroom home in the Sydney suburb of Burwood in 1965, the space nurturing both George and the Easybeats – a short-lived but highly successful rock band featuring George Young – and AC/DC, the legendary hard rock band that featured Angus (lead guitar) and Malcom Young (rhythm guitar), which their older brother George would go on to manage.
More than a half-century later, AC/DC is still going strong, having sold over 200 million albums worldwide – including an estimated 50 million copies of Back in Black, making it one of the best-selling albums in history. Considered one of rock music’s most iconic and influential bands, AC/DC counts its admirers among every generation, with even 40-year-old records climbing back into the Billboard charts thanks to new fans.
Now, that global fanbase has lost a key piece of the band’s history. Burwood Council has long celebrated the Young family connection, commissioning a mural last year on the side of a terrace house just metres from their old home, after the home itself was deemed ineligible for protected heritage status. Until the new “special space” is built, the massive portrait of Angus and Malcolm Young is now the only thing marking the location that gave rise to one of the rock world’s greatest acts.
