Since Melbourne was established as a city a grand civic square has been something lacking. Many attempts have been made over the years to build one, and today’s example is the 1929 ‘Parliament Square’ proposal for the top end of Bourke Street. The proposal was included in the Plan for General Development created by the […]
This is the tale of Rosedale Estate in Chartwell, a failed subdivision on the western plains of Melbourne, midway between Werribee and Rockbank. Google Maps Early years The neat grid of streets stand out against the flat grasslands, 7 km south of Rockbank and 10 km north of Werribee. Land Victoria All with British names: […]
With all of the recent talk about Southern Cross Station’s failings – in particular failed escalators and gross overcrowding in peak times – what better time than now to look at what could have been. The backstory On February 28, 2000 then-Premier Steve Bracks announced the Linking Victoria program, which included a joint private/public sector […]
If you think Melbourne is a city already strangled by freeways, then this 1954 proposal for a City Ring Road will surely make you feel that we dodged a bullet. Included as part of the 1954 Melbourne Metropolitan Planning Scheme, the City Ring Road was for a controlled access road that would encircle the entire […]
St Kilda Junction is a horrible place to navigate on foot, with a tangle of concrete flyovers carrying speeding cars and trams over a network of dingy pedestrian subways. But believe it or not, it could have been even worse. That is something hard to believe while approaching by car. Or driving through the underpasses. […]
