Hannah Bailey

3/4/2017

Settlement patterns and urbanisation – Melbourne, Australia

Introduction

Melbourne was first discovered by European settlers John Murray and Matthew Flinders in 1802.
Their observations and examinations of the area set the precedent for John Batman’s arrival in 1835;
Batman signed a treaty with the indigenous Wurundjeri people to purchase 240,000 hectares of ‘prime
farming terrain’ (Victoria State Library, 2017) for the British in exchange for items including 40
blankets, 30 axes, 100 knives and 6 shirts. His treaty was soon overshadowed by Governor Bourke’s
1835 proclamation which implemented terra nullius – that is, the idea that ‘the land belonged to no
one prior to the British Crown taking possession of it’ (Thompson, 2011). The proclamation was
representative of the British government’s attempts to take control of social and land policy from the
indigenous people.

Reasons for settlement

Melbourne’s appeal to
the early settlers is closely
linked to geographical
factors. Its coastal location
at the head of Port Phillip
Bay allows for transport
links from boats, as well as
supplying fish such as
snapper, flathead and
whiting (Victoria State
Government, 2016). The
four main rivers around
Melbourne – the Bunyip,
the Yarra, the Maribyrnong
and the Werribee – provide
freshwater fish such as

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bream. The Yarra is largely forested upstream, with 100,000 hectares of protected land around the
source enabling the Yarra to provide 70% of Melbourne’s drinking water (Melbourne Water, n.d).
Another appeal for early settlers is likely to have been the consistently mild temperature, with summer
temperatures in December to February averaging between 13°C and 26°C, and winter temperatures
between 6°C and 14°C (Australian Government Bureau of Meteorology, 2017). Gold was discovered
along the banks of Bendigo Creek in 1851 (Bendigo Tourism, 2017), leading to a population boom; the
population of Victoria had
reached 90,000 by the end of
1852 (Visit Victoria, n.d). Crop
growing to sustain the
population was made possible
by the residual basalt rock, left
by ancient volcanoes 40 million
years previously (Boyce, 2013),
which enriched and fertilised
the local soil. The flatness of the
land facilitated farming,
cultivation and grazing, as well
as forming a flat foundation on
which the urban city would be
developed.

Topographic data from Google Earth 2017

Land use models

Melbourne city can be analysed using Burgess’s ring model and

Hoyt’s sector model. The models have the concept of a central
business district in common. Melbourne’s CBD, located north of a
meander in the Yarra river, was designed in 1837 by surveyor
Robert Hoddle and is formed of
30-metre-wide main
thoroughfares, wide enough to
accommodate Melbourne’s
tram network in addition to cars
(Travel Victoria, 2017).
Melbourne’s CBD is the seat of
administrative offices such as
the Supreme Court of Victoria
and Melbourne Town Hall, as
well as a bustling tourist area,
encouraged by retail outlets and
arts centres such as galleries and
museums. Unusually for a city
centre, Melbourne’s CBD is
Melbourne’s CBD:
http://www.bcl.com.au/melbourne/images/tvic2/MelbournecityV.jpg surrounded by parks – Flagstaff

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Gardens to the west, Queen Victoria Gardens and the Royal Botanic Gardens to the south, Carlton
Gardens to the north and Melbourne cricket ground to the east. These parks act as a substitute for
Hoyt’s zone of transition; Melbourne does not feature the terraced housing that normally composes
a ZOT, as a key aspect of the Great Australian Dream is each family’s desire for ‘their own home on
their own quarter-acre block’ (Armstrong, 1997). This ideology means that the population density of
the Greater Melbourne area is only 440 people per kilometre (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2014),
a fraction of London’s 1510 ppkm.

Residential areas therefore lie outside the tourist hub of the city centre, where more land is available
for less money. These residences are assembled in the opposite order to Burgess’s proposed
concentric ring model; the upper class areas form a ring closest to the CBD, then middle class
residences form a ring that stretches further south down the line of the bay (along the main train line).
This is because house prices are considerably higher in the city centre and decrease further away.
Lower class residences form a ring around the outskirts, concentrated on the south-east side of the
bay, forming a linear settlement which is parallel to the coastline and the train line (Daly, et al., 1999).
A ring that does not feature on Burgess’s model is that of agriculture; Melbourne is surrounded by a
ring of land used for conservation, farming, grazing and forestry, with increasingly isolated urban
pockets that follow rivers or transport lines.

Hoyt’s sector model can be applied to the industrial elements of Melbourne. Two main industrial
channels are visible: Melbourne West, and Dandenong. Melbourne West, situated in between the CBD
and Melbourne’s airport, is also adjacent to most of the major interstate road and rail connections.
This facilitates the importing and exporting of products, mostly food products or transport equipment
and parts (LeadWest, 2017). Dandenong, approximately 24km south-east of Melbourne, specialises in
industrial areas of manufacturing, construction and wholesale trade. Both Dandenong and Melbourne
West rely heavily on road and rail links, supporting the hypothesis behind Hoyt’s model.

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Rural-urban continuum

The idea of the rural-urban continuum

emerged as a response to the perceived
rural-urban dichotomy, a sociological
phenomenon whereby cities and
villages are considered to be
fundamentally different in terms of
culture, economy, and infrastructure
among other factors. Subscribers to the
continuum theory challenge this
dichotomy with ‘the belief that Illustration from http://geohaunt.org/geohaunt/site/CH.php?i=147
between the truly rural and the truly urban are many shades of grey’ (Oxford Reference, 2017), largely
made evident in the 21st century by the prevalence of transport links and individual car ownership
which enable commuter towns to emerge in between the cities and rural areas. It appears to be a
question of definition, or rather, the lack of definition that can be applied to city boundaries and village
boundaries. This creates a blurred border – the rural-urban fringe – around the urban city metropolis,
in which the land is used for a mixture of housing, business parks, airports, and recreational purposes
such as golf courses.

Around Melbourne, the airport lies 22km northwest of the city (Daly, et al., 1999), far enough away
to cause minimal disruption to the higher population density that lives and/or works in the city centre
and its immediate
suburbs. The three
largest business parks
(shown) – the Aviation
Precinct, Northpoint and
Clayton – are situated far
from the CBD, in
suburban areas where
more land is available at
less expense for the
construction of these facilities. However the crossover point of the continuum, the bridge between
the rural and the urban, is suggested by the zoning
system of the city’s train map (left). The yellow
areas are ‘urban’, with the CBD framed by the City
Loop line; the blue areas are more ‘rural’, and link
to towns or villages further away from the city
centre.

Changing land use

The aforementioned Great Australian Dream is

partially responsible for Melbourne’s urban sprawl,
as urbanisation has now enveloped 99% of the
grasslands that defined the area before the arrival
of the Europeans in the 1830s (Milman, 2015). The
areas that were allocated to the farming of sheep in

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the 19th century (Boyce, 2013) have now succumbed to the pressure on provision of accommodation
for the growing population, provision of land for growing businesses, and the harnessing of previously
natural grassland areas for grazing and crop-growing purposes. The land is having to be adapted for
the demands of this increasing population. Melbourne city council estimates that the latest released
population figures, of 122,000 living in the greater Melbourne municipality and a further 732,000 daily
visitors or commuters, are
expected to rise by 38% by 2030
(Melbourne City Council, 2016).
The council intends to help
accommodate this increase by
development of the 56-hectare
North Arden region, close to the
CBD, by constructing new
housing for up to 15,000 people
and creating 34,000 jobs (Victoria
Planning Authority, 2016).
Construction of Arden Station is
due to be completed by 2026,
satisfying the increasing demand
for frequent, accessible public
transport services. As Milman
(2015) mentions, however, it is
another question ‘whether the
associated services – education,
health, social – arrive at the same
Melbourne’s urban growth 1883-2015,
time’.
from Australian Bureau of Statistics

Conclusion

Melbourne is a prosperous city, clearly proud of

its 6-year standing as the ‘most liveable city in
the world’, according to the Economist. Arguably,
however, its growth is not sustainable, and the
annual population increases will continue to
increase the strain on existing services. Also, until
a tangible urban boundary is established, urban Melbourne land use table from Australian Bureau of Meteorology
sprawl is likely to continue to eat into the green 2010
fringe that surrounds the city.

1440 words

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