80-ACRE ROOF

Hokitika Guardian, 15 March 1929, Page 7

80-ACRE ROOF

GREAT MELBOURNE PLAN

£4,000,000 ADDED WEALTH

SYDNEY’, February 21

For more than forty years, Mr J. A. Smith, the framer of the city ol Melbourne’s building regulations, has been hammering away at a scheme for roofing the great railway yards at tin.railway centre of Flinders street. Now with the offer of one English and lour Australian syndicates, he believes thu there is a possibility of the work liei.-g undertaken, and that Melbourne’s on the threshold of the most remarkaoiv development in its civic history. The roofiing of the railway yards would add 80 acres to Melbourne, ami the sponsor of the scheme believes, and is prepared to prove that far from being a costly undertaking, it *v. m.i be carried out at a huge profit. The added area, lie says, won hi show a jvt fit of at least £625 a foot. Everyone agrees that the present site is an eye sore, although the area which sur rounds it constitutes the finest emir onment within the metropolitan area The natural conformation of the area makes it possible to construct a platform over the yards. Beneath the pi inform all the functions of the metropoitun station, virtually undergrauml and hidden, could be effectively conducted, Above the platform the area created by its construction could be added as an integral part to the most valuable portion of the city. It is explained that the roofing of the yards would make possible the extension of the roads and streets now abruptly terminated by the railway yard, thus releasing traffic at present forced into the bottle neck of Swanston street formed by Prince’s Bridge At least three blocks could be added to the city on the Flinders street frontage alone, with a total frontage exceeding 600!) feet, and of a value avoraging more than £6OO a foot. Assuming that the platform was extended to the river road, an additional '2OOO feet frontage would be obtained with an outlook upon the river and the Botanical Gardens. Where the well-known Prince’s Bridge stands be fore the white man arrived the a'.engines crossed the river at a native fori At the same place the colonists establihed a punt, then a modern un'dge, then a stone arch, then the present steel bridge. To that centre ad the main streets of the city and all traffic avenues converge. Trams accentuate the congestion. The railways sE-i-ions. are adjacent to the bridge, and Melbourne thus became a city of arterial communications radiating from a common point—-the old crossing place oi the blacks.

The value of the area now given up to minor railway purposes is <1 eel a rod to be on a conservative estimate worth £2.500,000. The estimated net profit on the portion of the roofing scheme is put down at more than £4,000,000.. All the area to be covered if the scheme is carried out will not hr required for railway purposes, and it is proposed to provide a great yarhing area for 20,000 motor-cars, a facility badly needed with the great growth of motor traffic. There is a suggestion that the tops of the buildings to be erected on the platform could be trailformed into aerodromes, but this is a matter that could be given attention later. It is a novel and ambitious scheme.