City of Darebin Heritage Study Volume 1 Draft Thematic

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DAREBIN HERITAGE STUDY STAGE 2Figure 46 Preston settlement - 1945[Carroll, 1985:174]Figure 47 Preston settlement - 1963[Carroll, 1985:182]74

VOLUME 2: THEMATIC ENVIRONMENTAL HISTORYMany of the houses in the inter-war subdivisions throughout Darebin were constructed withthe assistance of the State Savings Bank of Victoria as noted in section 2.4. George BurridgeLeith, chief architect of the Bank Building Department from 1921 until his retirement in 1953was one of the most influential men in the Bank and by the mid-1920 presided over one of thefastest growing and most prestigious departments. He designed a series of ‘Bank homes’ - plansfor standard homes, which sub-contractors built under the supervision of the Bank’s BuildingDepartment. Up to 30 designed were produced by the Department (Murray & White,1992:207-17).Credit foncier borrowers from the SSBV could choose one of the bank’s own house designs, orchoose their own design. Whatever the design, the bank required a high standard ofconstruction/supervision, which seems to have been the basis for the very high reputation of a‘State Bank house’ for many years.The model of garden suburbs was also adopted by the Housing Commission of Victoria andthe War Service Homes Commission in their approaches to estate planning and layout. TheHCV estates were designed by the Commission’s Architects Panel, and were laid out alongmodern town planning lines, wherever possible (HCV 2 nd Annual Report). One of the firstestates was the 3.1 acre site on Oakover Road that was acquired by the Housing Commissionin 1939 and was partly completed by mid 1940. In creating Kenwood Court the designersaimed to apply the ‘garden city’ principles espoused by the houses that faced onto a garden area‘somewhat reminiscent of the village square’. (HCV 2 nd Annual Report, p.9) However, theCommission’s architects were constrained by the small size of many of the early estates, whichoften had to conform to pre-existing subdivision patterns. A smaller Housing Commissionestate at Newmarket Street, Northcote completed in 1942 has 34 brick houses and featuresGarden Suburb ideas in the planning of the landscape (Ward, 2000:22-3).The West Preston estate, developed from 1946, was much larger than those estates previouslypurchased by the Commission in Preston, and was an unsubdivided area. This gave thearchitects the opportunity to create a true ‘garden city’ estate. The subsequent layout of theWest Preston-Reservoir Estate, with its curving crescents and cul-de-sacs, contrasted markedlywith the surrounding patterns of straight parallel streets. Garden city principles were alsoevident in another post-World War Two estate developed in 1948 by the Commission inPaywit Street where the houses were situated around a centrally located park containing aplayground.Suburban expansion in the post-war eraAnother depression and another war slowed any further development for over a decade, beforea new boom commenced in the late 1940s and changed the pattern of Darebin’s settlementand the cultural make-up of its population. The northern and eastern extremities of Prestonremained rural or semi-rural until the second half of the twentieth century, when they werefilled up by post Second World War housing and industrial development.Figure 48Post WW2 land sales inNorthcote: Merri Park Estateadvertisement, 1963[DHE, ID 497]75

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