Preston & Northcote Community Hospital

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Melbourne, second largest city of Australia, a city which now contains more than one sixth of the Commonwealth’s total population. Melbourne is the cultural, business, administrative centre of the state of Victoria and 60% of the people of the state live within its boundaries. Melbourne’s port handles more overseas shipping than any other port in Australia. Its * 0:02:00.7 wharves are situated at the very doorstep of the city and at Port Melbourne the largest of overseas liners may be berthed. Melbourne’s airport is the busiest in the British Commonwealth. Melbourne has become Australia’s most heavily industrialised capital city and it’s the headquarters for many of the country’s largest industrial and commercial enterprises. Because of the wisdom and enterprise of its early settlers Melbourne is also a gracious and beautiful city. Those first citizens planned their town with foresight and vision, laying out wide streets and spacious parks and gardens. The city’s pioneers endeavoured to make certain that there’d be breathing space in a new world which would be of their own making so they planned wisely and as far as they were able to see, adequately for the city’s future expansion. But those founders of the city more than 100 years ago could not have visualised that one day their town was to become a vast metropolis of one and a half million people. The founders of the city could not visualise that one day workers who could walk to their jobs would spend more than one hour each day getting to and from their place of work. That trams would be unable to handle the peak hours. That trains would become hopelessly inadequate for the handling of the enormous flow of commuters into and away from the city. And that with the coming of the motor car the original wide streets would become incapable of handling the ever increasing traffic flow. The city fathers could never have realised that city stores and business enterprises would grow enormously in size and attract more and more people into the city centre, thereby creating ever growing problems of traffic congestion with its mounting delays, cost and dangers to the community. As the city centre has grown in importance, many old shopping centres have declined and the living conditions in many of the surrounding suburbs have deteriorated, industry has expanded into them and people have moved farther out to live. This has often resulted in an undesirable mixture of shops, houses and factories and the growth of slum conditions. As the population of Melbourne has increased new suburbs have constantly developed further and further out from the city’s centre, until today Melbourne area* 0:08:00.4 to some overseas cities in more than twice its population. This unplanned suburban sprawl has produced many civic problems and has brought with it many hardships for the people. The increasing public burden of providing new services over an ever expanding area and the increasing distances between the home and places of work have created great problems. The occupiers of these houses are fortunate, they have essential services but as a result of the unplanned suburban sprawl, many families in the outer suburbs are living under difficult conditions without these services. The indiscriminate subdivision of outer suburban land has often ignored the fact that essential services cannot be provided within the foreseeable future. Many breadwinners are faced with a long, tedious and time consuming journey to and from their work. Many housewives are separated from shops, schools and other community facilities by the quagmires of unmade roads which, because of bad planning, they remain in this condition for many years to come. This rapid and haphazard growth has also brought other community problems, that of providing adequate schools and playing fields where they’re most needed. Hospitals are overcrowded and as a result some are operating below maximum efficiency. Industrialists and business men have been faced with the growing problems of where best to secure factory and shop sites. These many problems caused by haphazard growth are already costing the people of Melbourne dearly. They have reached the stage where Melbourne, like other world cities, can no longer afford to be without a plan to guide its future development. Under a special Act of Parliament in 1949 the Victorian government instructed the Melbourne and Metropolitan Board of Works to set up a planning organisation and prepare a plan covering an area of 50 miles radius of the city centre with extensions to include Frankston, Dandenong and Ringwood. This area includes 35 complete municipalities and portion of seven others. Under the direction of the chief planner, Mr. E.F. Borrie, the new organisation was formed in 1950. The first task was * 0:11:23.2 and analysing facts about the city, facts about the land and its resources. An aerial survey was made of the whole 680 square miles of the planning area, then every block of land, every building, every street and lane was inspected to determine its present use. This immense task was covered with the help of university students during their long summer vacation. A complete set of new maps of Melbourne embodying this information in distinctive colours had to be prepared. They show how every piece of land is being used. Much information was obtained by interviewing people in their homes and one survey alone consisted of a questionnaire of 60 questions put to 4,000 house holders spread throughout the metropolitan area. They were asked such questions as: where do you work, how do you travel to work, where do you shop. The interviewers visited offices, factories and shops during their study of the activities of the people themselves to determine their likely future needs. The surveys covered such diverse fields as size of future population, the requirements for industry, housing, shopping, public utility services, road communications, health, culture, education and recreation. Within the planning offices of the Melbourne and Metropolitan Board of Works the massive facts gathered for these surveys were co-ordinated and assessed and it was possible to discover accurately the extent of the city’s existing deficiencies and to estimate its likely future needs. Many striking facts were revealed. Having thus established an accurate picture of the metropolis, its present problems and likely future needs, the Melbourne and Metropolitan Board of Works was then in a position to prepare a plan to guide Melbourne’s future development; a plan in which all land will be reserved for the purpose it’s best suited; a plan whereby places for living, for working and for recreation are properly co-ordinated; a plan which can bring an end to haphazard growth and establish a rural zone around the city; a plan that will reserve land for the roads necessary to relieve traffic congestion and ensure the free movement of traffic between all parts of the metropolis, a plan that would, by eliminating bottle necks and by-passing congested areas enable attractive living areas to be located; a plan where homes can be economically provided with essential services free from unnecessary through traffic; a plan that will provide for a better distribution of industrial areas, locations where they can best serve the needs of management, labour and the community at large. In short, a plan capable of achievement that will enable the city to function more efficiently. The Melbourne and Metropolitan Board of Works has prepared such a plan, whether or not this plan will now be carried out will rest finally upon the people of Melbourne themselves. The model makers are bringing the master plan for Melbourne to life so that all can see for themselves what the plan can do to make Melbourne a better city in which to live. This is the future plan for St Kilda Junction and every one of Melbourne’s serious bottle necks has also been studied by the planners. Here are some of the better aspects of the city of Melbourne: streets and homes which already set a pattern for the future. We, the present generation, inherited a well planned city but we have neglected our responsibilities with the result that we have gradually lost control. It is vital for the future of the city that every citizen should concern himself with the details of the master plan for Melbourne. We should feel the same sense of responsibility towards our children and their children that the city pioneers felt for our generation. Will we honour our obligations to our fair city and its future or will we ignore the warning? A wise plan has been created. Will it receive your support?