How Garden City changed Melbourne forever

When someone talks about public housing in  Melbourne, the first images that you think of are probably the high-rise towers in the  inner suburbs. But these and other types of public housing in Victoria have their origins  in a discreet little suburb hidden behind the warehouses and factories of Fishermans  Bend. This is the story of Garden City. In 1901, Victoria attained its status  as a separate state after Federation. The population of Melbourne continued to grow and  this increase demanded

more places to house them. Recognising this, in the early 1920s, the  then City of Port Melbourne wanted to build on land reclaimed from Port Phillip Bay near  the mouth of the Yarra River. At the time, it was open sandy land, previously  used for a number of different things, including a slaughter yard and something called a  manure depot - which sounds decidedly unpleasant. This was supported by the new Melbourne  Town Planning Commission, but disputes over the ownership of this land held up 

any progress. The Melbourne Harbour Trust, responsible for the operation of the Port  of Melbourne and the waterways nearby, wanted to keep the land for unspecified reasons. Eventually the State Government  intervened to break the deadlock, and allowed the State Savings Bank to purchase  part of this land next to Port Phillip Bay, in an area between Graham Street and  Williamstown Road betwen 1926 and 1928. Now before we continue, you might be asking  yourself, what was a bank doing building hou

ses? Well, the State Savings Bank was a financial  institution owned by the State Government of Victoria. It had a long history of providing  housing from as far back was 1894. This not only included providing it directly  through its own housing department, but also giving long-term, low-interest loans to  people who needed them - particularly after the First World War with many returning  servicemen needing a place to live. What differentiated the Bank from the later and  more well-known Housi

ng Commission of Victoria was that the houses built by the bank were purchased  by their occupiers, rather than owned by the government and rented, as was the case in the  post-Second World War social democratic system. Anyway, coming back to the topic, planning for this area of Garden City by  the State Savings Bank began in earnest. The first to be developed was what is now called  the Bank House Estate - which was the first of three precincts to be built. This was 322 houses  built between 19

27 and 1929, and 1937 and 1948. In terms of its layout, the Melbourne Town  Planning Commission recommended that it be developed using the ideas of the 'Garden  City', popularised by Ebenezer Howard in his books in 1898 and 1902. This concept was then  implemented as the latest 'fad' through the 1910s, 20s and 30s in many new cities, such  as Welwyn and Letchworth in Britain. So no prizes now for guessing where  the name of the suburb comes from. In summary, these principles of a  Garden City we

re a great departure from how cities were built in the 19th  century. It emphasised green space and connected satellite cities  that supported each other. However, despite its name, Garden  City in Melbourne is more of a 'garden suburb' than Howard's 'garden city'.  This is because Melbourne's Garden City is essentially still a suburb  - it is certainly not a satellite town - and is almost entirely residential.  Although it does incorporate some elements, such as the emphasis on greenery and spa

ce,  I think it's more of a suburb than a city. Regardless though of which one it is  closest to, what made this development so innovative in Australia was its use of  these principles and a 1919 design manual used in the UK for the construction of its  own housing estates after the First World War. Numerous people in charge of this project  from the State Savings Bank had visited the UK, including its General Manager G. E. Emery, and  appear to have been inspired by what they saw. These house d

esigns for Garden City were then very  different to what was being built in Australia at the time. For example, rather than service lanes  at the rear of properties, a generous nature strip was built at the front - something that  we mostly take for granted in today's suburbs. Something else interesting that the Planning  Commission mandated in this first round of development was that one in every ten acres be  dedicated to parkland, another nod to the ideals of the Garden City and Suburb. Today

this  remains in the form of Garden City Reserve, which has been expanded in more recent years  after the closure of railways in the area. The second and smallest estate was built  in 1936 - this time more directly by the State Government and not through the Bank. The reason behind this second round  of development was the urban planning work being done at the time that sought  to improve the often poor state of city housing and where we find the origins of slum  clearance and similar programs.

As a result, there was a lot of discussion and  testing to find the best designs for houses and streets to create a healthy,  pleasant and productive urban environment. Part of this testing involved building  experimental projects around Melbourne, and one of these was this estate in Garden City. It consists of just 44 houses in two streets  between Graham Street and Williamstown Road - Griffin Crescent and Southward Avenue.  These lovely two-storey duplexes were built by the Public Works Depar

tment and are more spaced  out than those in the Savings Bank estates. Then in 1937, responsibility for building  in the suburb passed to the newly-created Housing Commission of Victoria as part  of the State Government's huge housing program led by Premier Albert Dunstan. It also  purchased an additional 22 hectares to the west. The aim in these new estates was  to rehouse people displaced when the inner-city slums were demolished, under the new standards and powers set out in  the Slum Reclama

tion and Housing Act of 1938. Again taking inspiration from  English planning of the time, the street layout is a series of meandering  crescents based around a wide central avenue and dotted with small parks. It also brought in some  American design elements, such as cul-de-sacs. This also brought with it the small  shopping strip on Centre Avenue to provide retail and services within  walking distance of the new dwellings. The first houses to be built in this second  section were at 324-326 Ho

we Parade and are very interesting in their own right. These  are known as the Experimental Concrete Houses as they were among the first to be built  by the Housing Commission using precast concrete. This was a technique developed  by Thomas Fowler of Werribee in the 1920s, and was subsequently adopted by the Housing  Commission to build structures more quickly and for less money, including the high  rise tower blocks built in the 1950s and 60s. These experimental houses still stand  today and a

re heritage listed themselves. Other early buildings included nine  'quartet' two storey blocks of four units in 1940. These one bedroom flats  were designed to accommodate couples without children. A community centre  - considered essential at the time to keep residents occupied - was also built  and remains here today on Centre Avenue. During this time, the State Savings  Bank also resumed its construction in the first section in 1937. This filled  up the remaining reclaimed land, which was fi

nally completed in 1948 following  delays caused by the Second World War. The final area of the precinct to be developed  was the Beacon Cove development further east in Port Melbourne. This estate was inspired by the  principles and styles of New Urbanism. In summary, New Urbanism is a type of urban planning that  focuses on medium density residences and jobs, provided in walkable urban environments with  parkland and other environmentally sustainable design features. Just like Garden City, Bea

con  Cove is not entirely true to this doctrine. I should also add the Barak Road Estate, built  in 1982. It was directly adjacent to Garden City on Howe Parade, and replaced a series of  dilapidated supply warehouses that built by the United States Army during the Second World  War and later became used mainly for wool. The Estate, although built many decades  after Garden City, featured similar designs, with large open spaces and mid-rise  dwellings. It was all demolished in 2023 for developme

nt which is  scheduled to be completed in 2026. Today, most of Garden City remains amazingly  intact, and it's one of my favourite suburbs to see in Melbourne. The little shopping  strip is still here off Williamstown Road, complete with some old signs. The  whole area is heritage listed, being one of the very first planning  controls introduced by what was then Port Melbourne City Council - which tells you  just how valued this place was and still is. Almost all of the original houses and flats

are  still here. Many have had minor modifications, but otherwise remain more or  less in their original condition. As we've seen, this was the site  of many 'firsts' in the design and provision of housing in Victoria,  and a lot of our public and private housing and suburban design since can  trace its origins right back here. Today the area lies next to the proposed urban  renewal precinct of Fishermans Bend - and once again, this once bustling hub of industry  and maritime trade will be tran

sformed. But these remaining humble old housing estates,  fast closing in on their hundredth birthday, will hopefully continue to  stand in all their glory. Thanks for watching! If you enjoyed  this and would like to see more, please subscribe to my channel so that  you can stay up to date on future videos. Also feel free to visit my  website at philipmallis.com. Thanks again, and I'll see you next time!