A MODEL TOWN

Evening Star, Issue 23335, 3 August 1939, Page 12

A MODEL TOWN

AUSTRALIAN COMPANY'S AMBITIOUS PROJECT

COMPLETE SELF-CONTAINED UNIT

Press Association—By Telegraph—Copyright

MELBOURNE, August 2. The most ambitious garden city plan yet attempted in Australia will be undertaken shortly by Dunlop, Perdriau Ltd., which proposes to transfer its Port Melbourne works, with 2,200 employees, to a site at Beaumaris, on the hayside 12 miles from the city. The cost of the undertaking is estimated at £1,500,000. It will include a new factory, 1,200 houses, shops, a hospital, theatre, and school. The latest town planning ideas will he adopted in the scheme, which is the result of many months of investigation. The area of land concerned comprises three-quarters of a square mile. The site lends itself to landscape planning. Recreation and sports grounds are a feature, and safe bathing beaches are a natural attraction. The object is to make a model town, a complete and self-contained unit for work, living, and play. Novel housing plans include a proposed community laundry service and reticulation hot water service in insulated pipes from a central heating station. The company will probably be unable to give its employees lower rents than they are at present paying, but the scheme will give them better con ditions at the same rents, with a substantial weekly saving in fares.