Architecture, Building and Planning - Theses
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ItemChange assessment in the post-war Mount Macedon landscape( 1986)Areas of scenic amenity close to urban centres, such as the Macedon Ranges and surrounds north-west of Melbourne, are increasingly exposed to land use conflicts. Residential developments and corresponding infrastructures oppose outdoor leisure activities of non-residents as well as the conservation of natural resources including water supply. As the trend of the demographic turnaround in rural areas is likely to continue, multiple land-use concepts necessarily have to adopt a fine balance between development and conservation based upon accurate information of space-time relationships. However, the fundamental understanding of change processes remains elusive. Studies dealing with landscape are static by using fragmentary descriptions. Systematic land-use reports are often confined to the single issue of land cover rather than placing the results into perspective of related environmental parameters. The base material for systematic monitoring of objects of spatial and temporal dimensions must be unbiassed and provide the consistency necessary for the defined area and periods. This leaves one reliable data source in the form of aerial photographs, which have a proven history of providing accurate, fast and inexpensive interpretation results over large areas. An arbitrary 25 ha-grid, which provides a common, cell basis for different data sets, is superimposed on the 282 km2 of the study area. The manual interpretation applies an overlay technique for assessing the quantitative and temporal manifestations of selected individual landscape artifacts (buildings, roads, dams and timber) on sequential aerial photographs of 1946, 1969, 1979 and 1985. The artifact developments are later regrouped, indexed and cross-tabulated with natural, social, economic and planning characteristics by statistical computer programs in order to evaluate change within the environment. The applied procedures provide significant insights into landscape change and they are potentially a flexible instrument for monitoring the effectiveness of planning decisions.
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ItemEnvironmentalism and land-use planning( 1985)This dissertation considers the research question: Can land-use planning attain the goals of environmentalism? The research question instigates the development of models for environmentalism and land-use planning, test of their congruence, analysis of institutional means to join them, case study of the specific method of lifestyle zoning for Nature conservation, international comparisons, and suggestions for the implementation of the ideology of environmentalism by the techniques of land-use planning. An applied planning orientation guides methods from political science, sociology, anthropology and geography to structure the theoretical and empirical studies. Comparison among the industrially advanced anglophone countries of Australia, Canada, Great Britain and the United States of America enable cross-cultural insight into environmentalism, land-use planning, and measures for the protection of dedicated areas. The evaluation of the fit between the environmentalism and land-use planning, considers their origins, values, operating principals, programs and problems. This social-policy analysis reveals substantial concurrence, particularly regarding concern for the unintended consequences of technical and social policies, human interaction with the physical environment, care in resource use, urban and Nature conservation, the importance of open space, rational forethought, the long-term, regional view, environmental diversity, government intervention, need for co-ordination in government, use of experts, citizen participation, self-actualization, equity, and generic as well as substantive definition of the fields by their supporters. The ideological outline of contemporary environmental planning provides a framework for detailed analysis of the case study of an "Environmental Living Zone" on the fringe of urban Melbourne, Australia. Historical research, interpretation of planning schemes, maps and aerial photographs, interviews, and observation provided insight into the social and environmental factors in residential conservation. From the empirical and theoretical analyses, the work suggests implications for practitioners- and directions for further research.
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ItemTwo Scots in Victoria: the architecture of Davidson and Henderson( 1983)Research for this dissertation began in February 1970 with a part-time post graduate, study to identify and document the architectural heritage of the Western District of Victoria. The initial program of study, which was centred on my birthplace, Camperdown, and the surrounding municipality of the Shire of Hampden, concentrated on an investigation of the many pastoral homesteads located in this rich grazing region of Victoria. Although the task proved to be both expansive and expensive, it was quickly established that throughout the nineteenth century, Scottish immigrants to the Port Phillip Colony of New South Wales exerted a strong, distinctly Caledonian influence on the patterns of settlement and cultural development of the lands known as 'Australia Felix'. In many instances, it was apparent that Scottish architectural traditions had been directly transplanted into an Australian context with a landscape altogether reminiscent of the Lowlands and Border Country of Scotland. In mid 1972, my research program was reduced in extent and redirected towards an investigation into the nature of this Scottish presence, and the influence of Scottish architects in the development of identifiable architectural traditions in Western Victoria. An index of the building and architectural data contained in the files of the Geelong Advertiser from 1840-1888 was prepared and a chronological account of the development of homestead architecture in the Western District was subsequently framed. Although several architectural firms were associated, with varying degrees of success, with the pastoral industry of the region, one firm, that of the architects Alexander Davidson and George Henderson, dominated the building industry at the height of the wool boom in the 1870's. A chance follow up to a footnote in Margaret Loch Kiddle's authoratitive, social history of the Western District Men of Yesterday (1961), during a visit to Scotland in 1972 led to the discovery of George Henderson's papers in Edinburgh. This extensive collection of letters, drawings and photographs, which was kindly made available to me by Mrs. E.S. Phillipps, the daughter of George Henderson, relates to the careers of the architects Davidson and Henderson in Australia and also to the earlier practice of their mentor, the noted Edinburgh architect John Henderson. Included in the collection are 115 letters, written by George Henderson to his mother in the period 1867-1877, whilst working in Australia. These monthly epistles provide a unique and extremely frank, personal and detailed account of an architectural practice in Western Victoria in the nineteenth century and form the basis of this dissertation, which is essentially a study of the architecture of Davidson and Henderson.
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ItemGlass' Creek and Hay's Paddock: the background history of a park( 1984)This case study relates the history of a controversy in the Melbourne suburb of Kew, about the development of public open space. The space consisted of an existing park, through which a creek flowed and proposed parkland adjacent to it, which was private farmland when the history began. The controversy was activated by a group of residents who opposed the Municipal Council's plans to underground the Creek and to build three ovals. They wanted the Creek reconstructed and the site developed as a "natural" environment. The dispute focused on three issues: treatment of the degraded, urban creek; use of the land for active or for passive sport, and the values ascribed to the land. The case study is based on documentary material from the files of the main organisations involved, and on interviews with some participants. It covers the period 1971 to 1981, describing the area, the interests of the main organisations, the history of their attitudes, proposals and decisions. The problems of urban creeks are outlined. The report describes how Glass' Creek was reconstructed and some of the problems associated with that. It considers why the recreation conflict was protracted and concludes that this was due to differing belief systems about the value of the land itself, which could only be resolved by political means. Finally, the case study examines what "natural" meant and how participants expressed their values towards the land through physical and symbolic proposals for development of the site. The case study illustrates problems in the planning structure and raises questions for landscape architects about the relationship of people to their physical environment and the way in which they invest it with meaning.
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ItemAn investigation of salt marsh dynamics: a study of salt marsh at Jack's Beach, Westernport Bay, Victoria( 1982)Many studies of the environmental factors influencing the occurrence and zonation of salt marsh (and mangrove) communities may be found in the literature, however few of these studies consider all of the environmental and vegetation factors as integral components of a dynamic system. The present study gathers together quantified environmental and vegetational information, including the vertical zonation of vegetation, the relation of vegetation to tide levels, weather data, soil characteristics, and the relationships between these factors and soil salinity and soil water content, as an integrated investigation of salt marsh dynamics. Because of time and resource restraints, the collection of quantitative data was restricted to a relatively small area of salt marsh (including mangroves) at Jack's Beach in Westernport Bay, Victoria. However the wider implications for the salt marshes of Westernport Bay are discussed and some general inferences are drawn.
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ItemThe incidence and rectification of faults in residential buildings in Melbourne( 1987)Synopsis: A sample of houses in Melbourne (2676 observations) is surveyed in order to gauge the incidence of various types of faults which occur in different types of construction. The element "external walls" is chosen to investigate the strengths of any relationships between faults, their severity and the age and location of the house. Cross tabulations and log-linear modelling are used to measure these relationships. A regression equation relates the severity of faults in external walls to age and the incidences of faults are illustrated on contour maps. A sample from these observations is surveyed by questionnaire (235 returns) in order to gauge the cost of, and time involved in, rectification work related to the faults. Descriptive statistics are used to establish ranges of costs for rectification of faults. Regression equations measure expenditure with respect to age and expenditure is also mapped. The results provide a body of life cycle cost data relating to building maintenance and repair.
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ItemAviaries in private and public gardens of Victoria: a changing perspective of the landscape( 1987)The aim of this research report has been to examine garden architectural structures in the belief that they document changes in Australia’s social history and society’s changing attitudes towards the environment. The material which formed the basis of this study was researched using primary and secondary historical and contemporary documents. Due to the lack of information concerning the number of aviaries in private gardens, it has not been possible to conclude that aviaries in private gardens are now any more or less common than they were in the past. However, the presence of aviaries in public gardens in Victoria has declined significantly. The report has highlighted some of the general changes in the design of aviaries. The designs of the earliest aviaries were purely ornamental, however, contemporary aviary design is primarily concerned with the welfare of the inhabitants. An analysis and evaluation of garden architectural structures from a social viewpoint has revealed some of the changes in man’s perceptions, social values, and cultural attitudes towards landscape.