Garden City is a residential area of Melbourne located in the
City of Port Phillip
The City of Port Phillip is a local government area of Victoria, Australia on the northern shores of Port Phillip, south of Melbourne's central business district. It has an area of 20.7 km² and had a population of 113,200 in June 2018.
Po ...
5 km south-west of the
Melbourne CBD
The Melbourne central business district (also known colloquially as simply "The City" or "The CBD") is the city centre and main urban area of the city of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, centred on the Hoddle Grid, the oldest part of the city lai ...
and immediately west of
Port Melbourne
Port Melbourne is an inner-city suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, south-west of Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the Cities of Melbourne and Port Phillip local government areas. Port Melbourne recorded a populatio ...
. It was created as a planned residential development along the urban design principles of the early 20th century
Garden city movement
The garden city movement was a 20th century urban planning movement promoting satellite communities surrounding the central city and separated with greenbelts. These Garden Cities would contain proportionate areas of residences, industry, and ...
, initially by the
State Bank of Victoria
The State Bank of Victoria was an Australian bank that existed from 1842 until 1990 when it was taken over by the Commonwealth Bank. It was owned by the Government of Victoria, State of Victoria.
History
A government-controlled savings bank had ...
and subsequently developed by the
Housing Commission of Victoria
The Housing Commission of Victoria (often shortened to Housing Commission, especially colloquially) was a Victorian State Government body responsible for public housing in Victoria, Australia. It was established in 1938, and was abolished in 1984 ...
between 1926 and 1948.
[
The area had previously been undeveloped ]crown land
Crown land (sometimes spelled crownland), also known as royal domain, is a territorial area belonging to the monarch, who personifies the Crown. It is the equivalent of an entailed estate and passes with the monarchy, being inseparable from it. ...
known as Sandridge Flat, and was considered part of Fishermans Bend
Fishermans Bend (formerly Fishermen's Bend) is a precinct within the City of Port Phillip and the City of Melbourne. It is located on the south of the Yarra River in the suburb of Port Melbourne and opposite Coode Island, close to the Melbourne ...
, a wasteland of swamps and sand ridges located along the lower reaches of the Yarra River
The Yarra River or historically, the Yarra Yarra River, (Kulin languages: ''Berrern'', ''Birr-arrung'', ''Bay-ray-rung'', ''Birarang'', ''Birrarung'', and ''Wongete'') is a perennial river in south-central Victoria, Australia.
The lower stre ...
.[Only Melbourne, 'Garden City 3207']
/ref>
The former City of Port Melbourne
The City of Port Melbourne was a local government area about southwest of Melbourne, the state capital of Victoria, Australia, on the south bank of the Yarra River. The city covered an area of , and existed from 1860 until 1994.
The council a ...
, which undertook its own social housing scheme at Montague, lobbied the State Government in 1912 to allow social housing to be constructed on reclaimed land, but the Melbourne Harbor Trust
The Melbourne Harbor Trust was established in 1877 to improve and operate port facilities for the growing city of Melbourne. It was superseded by the Port of Melbourne Authority in 1978 and later by the Port of Melbourne Corporation.
Creation
...
had a claim over the land for port use. The State Savings Bank took up the Council proposal and in 1926 the Metropolitan Town Planning Commission
The Metropolitan Town Planning Commission was created in 1922 by the Government of Victoria, Victorian state government to provide advice for the planning and development of the city of Melbourne, Australia. It produced the first comprehensive urba ...
purchased 18 hectares of land south and east of Williamstown Road and Graham Street. In 1936 the HCV took over construction of houses from the State Bank acquiring a further 22 hectares to the west, ultimately creating three separate estate areas including Dunstan, Garden City and Fishermans Bend estates. The street layout was laid out on "garden city" principals, and the later HCV houses accommodated large families from deprived circumstances. The HCV built the last public tenanted houses along Beacon and Barak Roads in 1981. In recent decades the former working class social housing, built to alleviate the worst impacts of the depression, have become sought-after inner city accommodation for the middle classes, and houses typically sell for nearly $2,000,000.[
There is a small shopping centre in Graham Street built as part of the State Bank stage, while there are five neighbourhood parks in the HCV area, which was not otherwise well provided for with other facilities. The Ada Mary A'Beckett kindergarten, which was built with the support of philanthropic Free Kindergarten Union (1942).][
The 1979 Port Melbourne council conservation study identified Garden City as ''... a unique example of residential town planning, with a substantial part remaining intact.''][Jenny Brown 'English idyll planted in Port' ''The Age'' 25 June 2011]
/ref> Specific guidelines have been published to manage repairs and improvements to the houses without losing their heritage value.[Garden City Estate Guidelines (Formerly known as, and referenced in the Port Phillip Planning Scheme as the Design & Development Guidelines for the Conservation of Garden City) – These Are Advisory Guidelines to Assist Residents Maintaining Their Houses – May 1997 (updated 2010)]
/ref>
The estate includes semi-attached single and double-storey houses in red brick and cement render, including 322 ''cindercrete'' semi-detached double-storey "Bank Houses" in six variations which all looked very British,[ arranged around a series of public open spaces, in a Beaux-Arts layout. Contrary to popular belief, the "Bank Houses" were never public housing and have always been in private hands. The Bank Houses area later became known as "nobs hill", a reference to relative wealth of their occupants compared to the residents of the clinker brick public housing that was added later. The Housing Commission area was known as 'Little Baghdad'.Australian Places - Garden City]
/ref>
The Garden City post office in Centre Avenue has been open since 1945.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Garden city
Suburbs of Melbourne
Urban planning in Australia
Port Phillip
City of Port Phillip
Populated places established in 1926
1926 establishments in Australia