My suburb is on the 'northside' of Brisbane and was a semi rural area up until the Second World war. After that war ended, huge tracts of grazing land were developed into housing estates including a large public housing area. There was still lots of bushland left especially on the northern side of the suburb. DH and I live in a house typical of the 1950s. A weatherboard house with a tiled roof nestled in a good sized yard. These 2 photos were a real estate agent's photos which make our backyard look bigger than it is...
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The back yard
Then like many Brisbane suburbs the blocks of units started appearing. Often houses were demolished to make way for the units but some of them were built on vacant land near the main roads. But these developments were no where near our part of the suburb. Things are changing...
The photos of the activity in the block in which I live are all taken within a few minutes walk of my house... One morning in May I noticed that there were 3 cement trucks lined up waiting to deliver cement to a building site a minutes walk to the east.
We've got quite used to seeing those big pouring shutes reaching up high into the sky, spewing out tonnes of wet concrete mix.
A 30 second walk from this building site brings me to Ashmore st which runs into our street. This street is difficult to drive down recently as there are big trucks of all different types reversing into the sites. There are 3 building sites in this street alone. Then there is the vehicles of all the trademen which are parked in any spare space...even as far up the street as our place.
One development in Ashmore street which replaces 3 houses
The other side of Ashmore st where 4 homes have been demolished
More Ashford St views
Then, if I go out our back gate and walk south for 1 minute, this is what I find...yes another development built on the site of just 1 house...now there are 5 houses there.
In our back street
Now if I walk down the hill and follow the road to the street that is parallel to our street, in just under 3 minutes I reach another building site. The photo below shows 3 new houses. On the right-hand end of the photo ,you can see an older house. The large block that that house sat on was subdivided and the backyard sold off. On the block next door was a little postwar cottage. The cottage was demolished and the land divided into 2 smaller blocks. So where there used to be 2 houses, there are now 4.
3 new houses, round the corner and down the hill from us in Griffith St
Lastly a photo from the state library collection. The photo shows Griffith St in the 1920s...
Maybe photos of 'our type' of housing will be soon in the state library collections too as they may soon be part of history too perhaps. |
Oh No not good but what can you do??? Seems everyone is happy to sell their houses.
ReplyDeleteWith the increase of housing there will be heaps more traffic too..
The other Maria has made a very good point. Housing density is all very well and good, you can pull down houses or squeeze several units onto a block BUT, does town planning stop to think about the traffic strain on the area and the increased requirement for civil services. These streets weren't made for this type of development.
ReplyDeleteWOW! That is some major growth! I don't care for noise and dread the new development that is going in behind us as the houses are REALLY close together and there is to be something like 380 homes back there. And everyone will have privacy fence to cut them off from their neighbors. I'm truly hoping we can move before the 12th Street Extension gets fully developed.
ReplyDeleteI grew up in Ashgrove and such a beautiful tree lined street with all old queenslanders and post war houses. By the time I was married the family home was boxed in by units. Mum no longer lives there but occasionally when I am in the area I drive pass. Most of the original homes are gone from the street and big blocks of units have taken over. Sad but fact of life. Most suburbs close to the city are facing the cement jungle
ReplyDeleteWhat are you going to do? all that development is why we left our beloved Northern Beaches area of Sydney 15 years ago and eventually settled here, far away from the beach. Are you going also? It's very sad, i know.
ReplyDeleteIt's all too much - and too soon.
ReplyDeleteI don't think a lot of thought goes into infrastructure with all the new development. Are you going to stay on Maria? cheers Wendy