Saving our cities with suburbs
From Griffith REVIEW Edition 2: Dreams of Land
© Copyright Griffith University & the author.
Written by Patrick Troy
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Over the past few years we have experienced a massive and sustained attack on the form of Australia's cities. Politicians argue that we have to adopt a new urban form. Planners and other "urban specialists" inveigh against the traditional form of development. Simplistic environmentalists argue that this is environmentally unsound and that cities need to change to make them more urban (what they mean by this is never defined) to reduce environmental stress. Developers and other lurk merchants proclaim the benefits of apartments and are supported in their views by various trendsetters and especially newspaper lifestyle commentators. But why are suburbs so out of fashion?
The suburban form of our cities developed from their foundations. As there was no established agricultural hinterland, settlers had to provide or grow much of their own food. Even convicts were expected to provide much of their own sustenance. This was recognised in the early plans for the layout of towns that specified varying sized allotments. In Sydney, Governor Phillip proposed allotments should be 60 by 90 feet (18 by 27 metres). Governor Darling specified half-acre (2020 square metre) allotments with buildings set back 20 feet from the boundaries.
By the time Newcastle was settled some of the options had been closed off, so a quarter acre was specified as the allotment size with main streets 100 feet wide plus two 10-feet-wide footpaths. The Melbourne grid was laid out under the Colonial Secretary's instructions with allotments of half an acre, one chain (20 metres) by five chains. Adelaide's initial plan envisaged one-acre allotments, although later towns laid out in rural areas in the South Australian colony specified half-acre allotments. The plan proposed for Brisbane was based on allotments of a quarter acre with generous public squares and reserves and streets 90 feet wide. This plan was vetoed by Governor Gipps who felt that "wide open spaces encouraged public disorder". Gipps ordered one-fifth-acre allotments with streets of 66 feet, except for Queen Street which was specified as 80 feet wide.
The aspirations of the early settlers from urban England, and especially the middle class, for suburban villas was given energy because land outside the towns was still available as a government grant and rents in the town were high, thus providing an incentive for people to build their own homes outside the towns. Another pressure may well have been the dangers from fire that closely packed dwellings presented in a situation of unpredictable long dry periods.The Building Act of 1837 was an encouragement for those who held the conventional view that suburban housing was healthier. The introduction of building ventilation regulations based on miasmatic theories of disease transmission in The City of Sydney Improvement Act of 1879 had a major and persistent influence on the design of housing. Regulations covering structural safety, fire and health aspects of housing all helped to enshrine suburban separate houses in their own gardens as the dominant form of housing.
Other colonies followed similar trajectories in the development of regulatory regimes in response to similar demands. A house in its own garden thus became the predominant "national" form of urban development.
Once developed, the effect of this relatively low-density form of development was to enable successive generations of households to attain a high degree of self-sufficiency. Some argue that the extent of domestic production was largely the reason for the relatively high standard of living enjoyed by Australians in the late 19th and early 20th century.
In the original settlements there were no centrally organised waste-
disposal systems. The original form of development, however, meant it was possible for households, especially those on "suburban" blocks, to accommodate and manage most of their own wastes, including human wastes, on site.
In the inner areas of the cities primitive human-waste collection and disposal systems were developed that often led to the creation of "nuisances". Wherever they could be afforded, "reticulated" sewerage systems were developed. Once the system was developed, all land holdings within reach of the sewer had to pay property-based charges for the service whether connected to it or not. This led to the connection of all dwellings and commercial undertakings to the sewerage system. In areas beyond the drainage area of the sewer, and where soil conditions were appropriate, waterborne "septic" tank disposal systems were developed. The overflow effluent from these was then distributed to aspiration pipes, rubble drains or trenches to soak into the surrounding land. This in turn meant that the allotment for a dwelling had to be large enough to cope with the effluent flow. An allotment area of a quarter of an acre was regarded as the appropriate size in most soil conditions to cope with the waste flows. Once reticulated sewerage systems were provided the need for allotments to be on a "quarter-acre subdivision" was removed.
The development of regular communal garbage collections from dwellings and commercial undertakings also reduced the need for large allotments.
Initially households made their own provision for water supplies. Households installed tanks to collect and store rainwater from roofs. In response to campaigns for publicly provided secure supplies of potable water, major cities developed reticulated water supplies.
Generally, the inner areas of Australian cities had allotments of one eighth of an acre although once they reached a size where they were no longer "walking cities", smaller subdivisions were made in inner suburbs to cater for demand by low-income earners for housing close to the city centre. Middle-distance and outer suburbs had quarter acre allotments until the early post-World War II period when allotment sizes were reduced because the need to allow for domestic production, water storage, on-site sewage management and on-site garbage disposal had been removed.
THE ATTRACTION OF THE SUBURBS WAS the appeal of the idea of a "green and secluded neighbourhood", one where families could enjoy "fresh air, a pleasant view and a shady garden". Miasmatic theories of disease transmission reinforced this desire and regulations governing the design and construction of buildings, especially dwellings, enshrined this in the late 19th century. By the beginning of the 20th century, garden-city ideals gained currency, reinforcing the earlier ambitions of residents. The generally high and egalitarian distribution of wealth and income in the population meant that the great majority of the population enjoyed this more spacious form of development. The fact that Australian cities had internationally high levels of home ownership and a general perception that there was space aplenty reinforced the notion of the "normalcy" of the form that Australian cities developed.
Recognition of the centrality of the separate house in its own garden to the aspirations of the overwhelming majority of the population and the view that this would breed a conservative constituency was the foundation of the post-World War II campaigns of Robert Menzies, then leader of the Opposition in the Federal Parliament. The increase of home ownership to a record level of 70 per cent by 1961, where it has largely stayed (although is now falling), is a measure of the success of the first element of that campaign. However, the assumption that it would lead to political conservatism does not appear to have followed.
In the post-World War II period, Australian cities experienced a rapid increase in population – largely from immigration to support the new industrialisation but also from rural-urban internal migration that followed the changes in farming due to mechanisation, restructuring of industries like flour-milling and brewing, changes in railway technology, etc. This increase in urban population was accompanied by a rapid increase in motor-vehicle ownership that facilitated a massive increase in the suburban reach of all the major cities. The development of the road system and the increase in the capacity of radial roads, later to be enhanced by the construction of freeways and tollways, increased their centralisation.
What then were the advantages of the suburban character of Australian cities?
The suburbs were perceived as enabling households to develop a high degree of independence and security, especially through their own production of food and services. The suburbs allowed a high degree of individual expression (sometimes derided by "highbrow" cultural critics). They enabled on-site coping with much household waste. The development of gardens, especially the planting of trees for shade, enabled households to moderate their local climate to some degree without installing air-conditioning. The dwellings built in traditional ways had low levels of invested energy in them and were largely built with renewable materials. They were often built in stages and by the owners and also were readily adaptable to changing household needs. The outdoor space allowed householders to pursue a variety of hobbies, to have pets and to store recreational vehicles and equipment.
The suburban house provided a healthy comfortable environment and one that enabled family-centred activities ranging from cricket in the backyard to Christmas barbecues. The adaptability of suburban houses made them easy to retrofit solar hot-water heaters and to install rainwater tanks to collect water and reduce metered consumption.
In short, the suburban house and its garden provided the stage on which most Australians lived their easygoing lives of comfort in reasonable balance with nature. The advertising images of Australia's attractions and the suggestion that visitors would be welcomed by putting another prawn on the "barbie" projected the notion of a free and open society in a free and open built environment.