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July 2021

Good Fences Make Good Neighbours

The art of compromise

Cover of NCDC policy on front fences publication: September 19841

In one of our recent Finds of the Month we wrote about a survey completed to document the number of front fences that had been erected on the boundaries of Canberra housing blocks, and mused that it seemed like a curious project for the National Capital Development Commission (NCDC) to undertake. So much so, that we thought it might be worth investigating why it was felt there was a need to complete the survey and whether it resulted in any changes to Canberra’s ‘no front fences’ policy. A recently revealed Australian Capital Territory House of Assembly (HoA) file dating from the period gives us a good summary of the reasons why the front fences survey was done as well as some of the information it collected and how it was used.

In August 1982, Independent Member for the House of Assembly John Clements, issued a press release to say that he was making arrangements for the ‘Fence Defence Committee’ to meet with the Minister for the Capital Territory, Michael Hodgman, to present him with a petition in favour of a change to the front fence policy. It is said the petition contained over 8,000 signatures. Minister Hodgman issued his own statement for the press one week later in which he is quoted as saying that the:

    policy had been in existence since the early 1920’s and was adopted to achieve the ‘Garden City’ character for which Canberra had become justly famous. I believe the policy serves an important purpose and, in principle, should be maintained. I believe also that it would be supported by the majority of Canberrans. However, I accept that there may be special circumstances under which front fences might, on humanitarian grounds, be permitted to meet particular needs.

It is not clear what humanitarian principle were of concern but the is correspondence on the file that suggest that some residents felt that the policy was discriminatory and denial of basic human rights related to safety and security of families and their property. The Canberra Times reported in November that the number of signatures on a petition had by then grown to 'about 9,000'. It promoted the NCDC to commit to report on the situation early in 1983, 'after students from ANU and Canberra College of Advanced Education have catalogued all front fences in Canberra. There was no time wasted. By Early December 1983 the NCDC had organised willing teams of students to work through the streets of Canberra, cataloguing and indexing any structures erected on the front boundary of housing blocks deemed to be a fence . It seems they had only completed the exercise by the end of the year. The result of their work is the subject of out April Find of the Month.


Examples of photo taken in Ainslie for the 1982 front fence survey2

In February 1983 the NCDC review of the ‘no front fence’ policy was still in progress. A lobby group, the Fence Defence Committee was formed, but there was also considerable support for the existing policy. The arguments put forward for front fences are well summed up by a poem written by David Swain and published in the Canberra Times. It was also recited in the House of Assembly and recorded in the Hansard.

0 NCDC spare my fence

In spite of your taboo.

My garden was besieged by dogs.

They used it as a loo.

And very popular with kids

Who spent their leisure hours

Discharging stones and fireworks

At all my shrubs and flowers.

Another thing: my garden gave

A colourful display

Of fast-food wraps and lolly bags

Blown on a windy day.

Your garden-city concept's good;

A tribute to your labours.

But there's a proverb you've ignored:

Good fences make good neighbours.[i]

The ‘no front fence’ debate was however causing ‘a considerable uproar… in the press and in the community’[i] and the House of Assembly was keen to have the matter dealt with so instructed its Standing Committee on Development & Planning to report on an appropriate policy. Despite this the NCDC was still working through its policy review when the Standing Committee tabled its report to the HoA in May 1983. The report revealed that the Commission’s review was not a review of the ‘no front fence’ policy, but a review to consider whether there were ‘any special circumstances in which front fences might be permitted and to the particular conditions which should apply in such cases’[ii]. This heralded a compromise that the NCDC considered to be the ‘optimum solution’.

Having analysed the results of the 62,700 detached and semi-detached Canberra houses indexed in the December 1982 survey, the NCDC found that 3,600 structures were located in front of the building line. About half of these were considered to be fences built on the block’s forward boundary. In October 1983 the Commission distributed a draft policy on front fences that introduced a proposal for front courtyards rather than front boundary fences. It argued that:

It would not be feasible to introduce fences which would be of sufficient height to provide an adequate physical barrier without detriment to the established streetscape…However the Commission recognised that it was still necessary to find some solution to the real problems of householders trying to achieve some degree of privacy, security or noise attenuation. To meet these needs the Commission proposes that residents be permitted to erect courtyard forward to the present minimum building line.[i]

Two of the options for courtyard walls included in the 1984 policy3

In the end there was a need for a compromise. The NCDC didn’t want to depart from the policy on front boundary fences that had existed since the 1920s but recognised that security and privacy were a concern for some residents. The changes made in 1984 introduced arrangements that are very similar to the present-day requirements.

The Canberra Times 19/12/19844

As Robert Frost’s much-loved poem ‘Mending Wall’ says

Something there is that doesn't love a wall,

That wants it down. I could say 'Elves' to him,

But it's not elves exactly…

The NCDC elves may have wanted the walls down, but it seems in fact that many Canberrans do love a wall after all.

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File References

  • ArchivesACT: OLA13/0259 - Inventory - LA1976/49 part 2 - ACT Legislative Assembly – Fences.
  • ArchivesACT: UNREG-150239 - Inventory Survey of Front Fences in Canberra - Ainslie (2) - National Capital Development Commission - Planning Division

References

i National Archives of Australia. Series registration webpage – CP952/1. https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/DetailsReports/SeriesDetail.aspx?series_no=CP952/1 .

ii Federal Capital Pioneer (Canberra, ACT: 1924-1926). Viewed via Trove 20 August 1925. p. 1.

iii The Parliament of the Commonwealth of Australia. Federal Capital (Canberra), first annual report of the Federal Capital Commission for the year ended 30th June 1925 etc

iv Australian Dictionary of Biography. Oliphant, Kenneth Henry Bell (1894–1975). Viewed 26/05/2021. https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/oliphant-kenneth-henry-bell-11300 .

Images

  1. ArchivesACT, OLA13/0259 - Inventory - LA1976/49 part 2 - ACT Legislative Assembly – Fences.
  2. ArchivesACT, UNREG-150239 - Inventory Survey of Front Fences in Canberra - Ainslie (2) - National Capital Development Commission - Planning Division.
  3. ArchivesACT, OLA13/0259 - Inventory - LA1976/49 part 2 - ACT Legislative Assembly – Fences.
  4. ‘Courtyard now acceptable’ (1984, December 19). The Canberra Times (ACT : 1926 - 1995), p. 8. Retrieved June 24, 2021, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article122535387

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