Previous April Find of the Month


April 2023

Curtin's Radburn Development

The "inside-out" suburb

This photo from 1975 shows the main circle path linking Curtin Radburn residents to the local shops and schools. Used with permission of Wendy Saclier1

Canberra’s original designers, Walter Burley Griffin and Marion Mahony Griffin, were proponents of the Garden City movement and after their arrival in Australia to design the national capital Canberra, they produced a number of garden suburb estates, most notably at Eaglemont, Glenard and Mount Eagle Estates and the Ranelagh and Milleara Estates in Victoria.iii

While some have argued that Garden City ideals weren’t honoured in Canberra in the 1960s and 70s, there was at least one area of development in the city that was intended to uphold the ideas of outdoor space that was accessible to the whole community. Our Find of the Month this month focusses on the NCDC correspondence about the Radburn development in Curtin. First developed in Radburn, New Jersey, USA, the “Radburn Design” has roots in the Garden City movement of urbanised development. In Australia, the first example of the Radburn model was used for a housing estate for workers at the Commonwealth Munitions works in St. Marys, Sydney, in 1942.ii

Radburn principles explicitly required suburban design to separate traffic by a pedestrian path system that does not cross any major roads at the same level. This was achieved with cul-de-sacs for rear transport entry, and under-pass walkways. In front of the houses there were areas of parkland with footpaths to schools, pre-schools and shops so that the pedestrians did not have to cross roads allowing for greater community engagement in the open spaces. This was a development from similar Radburn estates in Britain where it was discovered people had not always used the pathways.

Curtin was the second suburb to be built in the Woden Valley (the first was Hughes). It was gazetted on 20 September 1962, with building starting in 1963. The first residents of Curtin moved into their new homes in 1964.iv

The archives file tells how the Curtin development was planned by the National Capital Development Commission (NCDC), with some fascinating, and sometimes quirky, requirements for its design.

The architects engaged by the NCDC were Leith & Bartlett Pty. Ltd. who were also engineers and town planners. In Curtin, Sections 64 to66 were planned to contain 42 houses within the bounds of Blyth, Philip and McLean Places and Ayers Street. The development  was later expanded to Nelson, Argyle and Colebatch Places.

Philip, Blyth and Mclean Places runnig off Ayers Street,
Carruthers street along the bottom of the photo. 19882

Separating foot traffic from cars was a priority for a Radburn development. To achieve this, all footpaths reaching Ayers Street, Curtin were fitted with bollards to stop vehicles from entering the pedestrian ways. The NCDC needed approval for the development from the Department of the Interior whose policy also opposed vehicle access. An internal memorandum summarised the minutes of a meeting between NCDC and the Department of the Interior representatives who agreed “the desirability of selecting tenants (owners) whose professions and callings precluded the parking of semi-trailers and the like in the area”i.

In keeping with those view on the right sort of professions, and their associated vehicles, for the area, the original plan specified one carport for each house with a hard standing for a second car. Setting these back from the boundary allowed for two visitors’ car parking spaces off street. Nowadays most have been converted to double garages.

The look of the development and the homes in it was also considered important. Leith & Bartlett recommended all yards be enclosed with horizontal rail and paling type fences to “screen the clothes hoists and provide an intimate playground for small children”i. It was also recommended that trees and shrubs be planted on the nature strips of the service cul de sacs to prevent unruly carparking.

The neighbourhood received fresh planting and street scaping of decorative flowering trees and shrubs, both evergreen and deciduous, included Cotoneaster - now considered an invasive weed - Escallonia and Viburnum (Snowball tree) species. Larger plantings on Crown land were selected so as not to cast dense shade in the adjoining properties.

When the Curtin Radburn development commenced in 1964, the homes were erected using existing NCDC designs, and some that were designed and built by private builders. It was thought that houses designed especially for the Radburn scheme ‘would provide certain niceties, but the extra cost… seems hardly warranted’i. In February 1966 NCDC planners decided that houses would only be built according to NCDC designs suitable to the Radburn Scheme. To help them draw up new plans, the National Council of Women was engaged for its advice on the layout of houses already erected on the Radburn sites. Twenty women were invited to ‘look at and discuss the development’ and to fill out questionnaires. Many of their suggested improvements were implemented, including the introduction of electric stoves, the redesign of kitchens and the availability of more options on how living spaces were configured.vi

Approved order for household appliances and fittings3

The use of the Radburn design in Canberra came under the notice of planners from other regional centres in Australia. The newspaper “The Border Morning Mail Pty Ltd” of Albury N.S.W. wrote to the Commission in 1967.

“The Housing Commission of N.S.W. proposes Albury’s first “inside-out” blocks in a new estate… Houses will face a park or pedestrian way and access for cars will be through cul de sacs behind them. Canberra, I know has been a leader in this field of housing estate development”.

The newspaper then requested pictures and comments on the “success of this type of planning”i.

In 1968 the Southern Metropolitan Master Planning Authority (Tasmania), requested information on the success of the Radburn development regarding accident prevention – presumably because of the design requiring less foot traffic crossing roads. The response states, “The Commission has no records of accidents having occurred in the Curtin Radburn project… There is however, evidence that houses have sold readily in the private enterprise sector of the project, presumably because of the Radburn attributes”i.

Blyth and Philip Places showing inteded house sitings, internal plans, placing of carports and Hills Hoists.4

The development and housing in Curtin were well received. A letter from the NCDC quotes a letter dated 1969 from an “occupant of one of the Radburn housing units for which Leith and Bartlett were the architects for the houses. He expressed considerable enthusiasm for the scheme, stating he had bought a fourbedroom house from the Government, including land, for about $12,400and that the general amenity of the area and the social contacts and the traffic free arrangements were very successfully operating”. In 1967 the Australian National University purchased several homes for staff relocating to Canberra. The three and four bedroom house and land packages cost between $9,739 and $10,631.

The NCDC files reveal some of the detailed planning required for the development of housing precincts and suburbs. In Canberra, the Garden City planning has always been linked to its urban development, and the Radburn Design seems to have fitted in well with this. The Curtin development has served its local community well for nearly sixty years now and its “residents are still singing the praises of the Radburn design”iv.

If you would like to view the records held by ArchivesACT, please submit a request through our online form.

Images

1 - used with permission of Wendy Saclier.

2 - ArchivesACT, ACT3 Photographic prints, negatives and slides - Office of the Surveyor General, 321 Curtin – Carruthers Street – Aerial View. March 1988.

3 - ArchivesACT, NC-71/243#01-02 – Radburn Housing Government Project

References

i ArchivesACT, NC-71/243#01-02 – Radburn Housing Government Project

ii Radburn design housing, Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Date retrieved: 23 December 2022 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radburn_design_housing

iii Garden City Movement, Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Date retrieved: 23 March 2023

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garden_city_movement

iv Experimental Radburn town planning disappearing from Canberra, 24 November 2014.   ABC News Online

v Brody, Carolyn, Forster Peter & Acker, Margitta (eds) – Curtin turns 50: the story of a Canberra suburb, 1964-2014. Fyshwick ACT, 2016

vi The Canberra Times – No traffic homes interest women, 28 October 1966. http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article106943134

Youtube videos of interest on Radburn Urban Planning:

Historic Radburn Virtual Tour (22.32 mins) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cx2u7h-bGIQ

This is a virtual tour of historic Radburn, Fair Lawn, New Jersey.  The tour includes many 1929 photographs of this National Historic Landmark. Landscape architects and urban planners Marjorie Sewell Cautley, Henry Wright, and Clarence Stein are discussed.

Radburn in "The City" (1.11 mins) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UzxcNVJFc30

Brief clips of Radburn, New Jersey, extracted from the 1939 documentary film, The City. The clips are slowed down to half speed. The soundtrack for The City was composed by Aaron Copland. The film is preserved in the United States National Film Registry. The music added over the extracted Radburn footage is from another 1939 film, The Wizard of Oz. It is from the scene where Dorothy first steps out of her ruined house (black and white) into Oz (color).

Radburn Plan (12.28 mins) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pe2_EMDgt3Q

Discusses Radburn city planning: provisions and concepts used in planning and its applicability for new town/cities.

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