Preparation of sites at Worsleys Spur

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33479, 9 March 1974, Page 1

Preparation of sites at Worsleys Spur

The initial sections on the 300-acre Worsleys Spur subdivision being developed by the farmerowners, Messrs W. J. and B. G. Francis, are not expected to be available on the market before late next year or early 1976.

The scheme involves about 800 sections on what is likely to be a model self-con-tained hillside suburb, to house about 5000 people, in a development planned to suit the local environment.

Mr W. J. Francis said yesterday that there had been steady inauiries about sections in the last four years. The number of inquiries has increased substantially in recent weeks, as a result of a fleet of earth-moving machines crawling over and cutting into the hillside.

The machines are cutting roadways and levelling the steeper portions of the area to provide gentler gradients for future home-owners. About 600,000 yards of fill is being shifted—but not off the subdivision. Much is for use to raise the floor of two existing gullies by 50ft.

It is intended that all earthmoving work be finished before winter so that topsoil can be replaced and grass sown.

Of the 300 acres, six have been set aside for playing fields, 72 will be for recreational park areas, and 68 will be landscaped with trees and shrubs. Mr Francis said that 130 to 140 sections would first be offered but only 50 would be developed at a time. The average size of a section would be 38 perches. The smallest would be of about 20 perches, and the largest up to an acre.

The type of development favoured was high-class yet attempting to cater for all income brackets, Mr Francis said. The initial sections offered would be premium sections.

The majority of the houses on the subdivision would have an unobstructed view of the plains and Southern Alps, he said. The highest

point of the subdivision was about 560 ft.

For the staged growth of the area over the next four or five years, it is likely that a number of types of houses will be built in certain parts of the subdivision to set the tone for potential builders and home-owners. What Mr Francis and Mr E. Smrekar, the Australian architect he has employed to plan the suburb, both want is a certain harmony between the land and the buildings to go on it. Before the first house appears, however, it is estimated that more than slm will be spent on grading, reading, and the provision of power and water reticulation. Much of the capital needed for this work has come from the sale of other properties in the province owned by Messrs Francis.