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One-Hundredth Year
No.
19,409                                       
MELBOURNE,
WEDNESDAY EVENING, AUGUST 2,
1939                      
Price
1½d      24 PAGES
 
INDUSTRIAL
GARDEN CITY
Big
Firm’s MoveTo Beaumaris
£1,500,000
COST
A model town for 10,000 people,
containing
1200 houses,
shops, hospital, theatre and school, is to be
established at Beaumaris
under the biggest housing and industrial project yet
planned in
Australia.
 
The scheme – to cost £1,500,000 – has been
prepared
by the Dunlop-Perdriau Rubber Co. Ltd., which will leave
its present
works
at Montague, Port Melbourne, for the new seaside site.
 Months
of Negotiation
 
New
factory, new plant, and the transfer of what will be
retained from the
old works, will cost roughly £500,000.
 

The
£1,000,000 will
be spent on the garden city, and the services to
be provided for the
2200
employees and their families. 
 

Latest
ideas
of town-planning
will be incorporated in the garden city.
 

Today the Dunlop company issued a statement to its
11,000
shareholders
advising them of the proposal. This marked the official
culmination of
months of planning. Negotiations for the acquisition of
2000 blocks of
land held by 1000 separate owners were begun six months
ago. The area
concerned
covers more than three-quarters of a square mile. 

Location
at
Beaumaris
depends on land-owners agreeing to make the land
available at
reasonable
prices. Otherwise, another site will be chosen
among those which have
been
considered by the directors.
 

The scheme requires 450 to 500 acres of land. It is
understood
that
already, on behalf of the company, lots aggregating 300
acres have been
acquired or are under option. This is about two-thirds
of the total
area
required. The price paid for many sections of the land
so far obtained
is believed to be from £50 to £100 an acre, according to
conditions. 

Acquisition of so many separate holdings on behalf of
the
company by
Baillieu Allard Pty. Ltd. represents probably the most
widespread land
negotiation in Australia’s history. 

Previous big land transactions have been in the reverse
direction –
subdivision of large holdings into small lots. 
The area in which
land-holders have been
approached is bounded on the north by Balcombe Road, on
the west by
Haydens
Road, on the east by Cromer Road, and on the south by
Anita Street and
a continuation of Anita Street.

A small tongue of
the
land touches
Beach Road, about 500 yards north of Rickett’s
Point. 

The area consists almost entirely of vacant land with tea-tree
scrub.
It was cut up about 15 years ago in the
subdivisional boom
which
followed the war. Most of the present blocks have a 50
feet frontage by
a depth of around 140 feet. 
In the subdivisional period inflated values were paid by
some of the
bidders – as much as £150 to £200 – for less than a
quarter
acre block. In recent years, however, much of this land
has been worth
only a few shillings a foot. Arrears of rates recently
amounted to
£6000. 
The high sums paid by some holders have increased the
difficulty of
making purchases at reasonable prices in this area. 

“Work
And Play” Ideal
The
Victorian
Railways extended the Black Rock tram about three
miles through this
area
and beyond some years ago. The line was abandoned in
the depression,
and
recently an Act was passed empowering the Railways
to uproot the rails.
This was actually begun this week.
 

Sea transportation is likely to be embraced in the
company’s
plans,
as deep water is available not far from the shore.

 Probably goods will be carried by
lighters
from a
jetty near Black Rock.
The site lends itself to
landscape
planning
and the contour of the country will be carefully
considered in the
design.
The scheme will provide for a type of house suitable to
the locality
and
for the planting of trees. 

Recreation facilities and sports grounds will be a
feature.
Provision
will be made for football and cricket, tennis courts,
athletics,
gymnasium
and other pastimes. 

In addition to the beaches, which will be a natural
attraction, children’s
playgrounds will be provided. 

The
object is
to make
the model town a  completely self-contained
unit – for work, for
living
and for play.
 

Essential services, which will be carried to the area
are gas,
electricity,
water and sewerage.

 
HOSPITAL,
SCHOOLS,
AND CRECHE IN MODEL CITY
Buses will run to
Sandringham and
Cheltenham railway stations. 

In the shopping centre, provision will be made for
grocers,
butchers,
bakers, drapers, and other shops, dairies, hairdressers
and beauty
salons,
post office, police and fire stations, library and
theatre. 

Provision will be made for churches, doctors, dentists,
health
centre
and a hospital. 

A technical school is contemplated. Not only will this
improve
the efficiency
of the personnel available to the company, but it will
serve to reduce
the problem of unskilled labor and dead-end jobs for
boys, and help to
raise the standard of earning power and living. 

A creche will be established to take care of children
during
the absence
of parents at work or otherwise. 

Among
the
household conveniences
being considered in the designs are the
possibility of arranging for
street
maintenance and lawn-mowing in front of and at the
back of the home by
power machines on a community basis.
 

One ideal, which the sponsors of the scheme would like
to
achieve if
possible, is to lighten the housewife’s Monday morning
drudgery by
establishing
a community laundry service for washing. 

Another project, which the engineers are likely to go
into, is
the possibility
of reticulating hot water by insulated pipes from a
central
station. 

It will probably be a city without fences. 

Most of the residential streets will be cul-de-saces
instead
of through-roads.
This will keep fast-moving traffic out of the
residential streets, and
add to the safety of children. 
 

Provided agreement is received from the
remaining
land-holders
yet to make their land available, a start will be made
with the ground
formation of the town within about two months. Building
would begin
about
six months later. 

The Dunlop factory first began at Montague nearly 40
years
ago. Transfer
to the new location will provide an opportunity for
obtaining maximum
benefit
from latest ideas and practices in factory and plant
design. 

Executives of the company believe that the town will
become
one of the
show places of the State. 
The scheme sets a new standard in the assumption of
responsibility
for the well-being and improvement of its work-people by
a big business
undertaking.

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