City of Darebin Heritage Study Volume 1 Draft Thematic

DAREBIN HERITAGE STUDY STAGE 25 BUILDING SUBURBAN DAREBINIntroductionThe pattern of Darebin’s suburban development was set firstly by its topography, whichdetermined where the most desirable residential sites were located; secondly, by Hoddle’ssubdivisional grid lines, which ignored the topography but determined the location of the mainstreets; and thirdly by the subdivision lines made by land agents and speculators. Within thisframework was overlaid a transport network as we have seen in Chapter 3, which largelydetermined the order in which settlement occurred. Some of Darebin’s early settlers werewealthy merchants or local businessmen who built large houses in prime locations while otherswere farmers. Few of these early houses have survived. The majority of permanent settlers inDarebin were working people seeking modest dwellings away from the crowded inner suburbs.Initial subdivisions of the area left little space for parks, and so Council acquired sites for parks,usually land no longer needed for other purposes, or unsuitable for development. In later years,there have been strong community efforts to restore the natural environment, especially theremaining open spaces along the Merri, Edgars and Darebin Creeks. This theme is alsoexplored further in Chapter 7 in the section entitled Appreciating and Defending theEnvironment.This chapter incorporates the following themes:AAVAHT2 Associations with towns and settlements4 Building settlements, towns and cities; 7.6 Administering AustraliaHistory5.1 Patterns of settlementAs noted in Chapter 2, many of the early initiatives aimed at settling people in Darebin werenot very effective, because much of the land was purchased by speculators who had nointention of settling the land. However, some of the early subdivisions ultimately determinedthe shape of suburban Darebin.The original grid survey of the Parishes of Jika Jika and Keelbundora was designed to give eachallotment access to water, where possible, with almost all blocks having access to either theMerri or Darebin Creeks. In the area south of today’s Murray Road the smaller acreagesresulted in long narrow blocks running east west, with short creek frontages at one end. Theblocks created a distinctive pattern that is reflected in today’s urban layout. The main east-weststreets - Westgarth, Darebin, Dundas, Bell Streets and Murray Road -followed the latitudinalallotment boundaries. In the south-east corner the blocks ran north-south, extending to theRiver Yarra and forming a different pattern from the rest of the area. The Heidelberg Road cutdiagonally through the blocks in this corner, which further altered the pattern. Although thearea to the south of Heidelberg Road is not in the City of Darebin, it has a shared history withthe study area as part of the former City of Northcote.The development of Darebin’s suburbs of Alphington, Fairfield, Northcote, Thornbury,Preston, Reservoir, Westgarth, Bundoora, and Keon Park are traced in the following sections.The following sections provide an overview of the development of each municipality.NorthcoteNorthcote’s remoteness from Melbourne attracted early noxious industries such as piggeriesand meat-works, and its natural deposits of clay were exploited for brickmaking. The noxiousindustries were banished from the central residential area in the 1870s, but Northcote’s64