Town Planning in Regional Australia: The Case of Launceston 1915–45

Abstract

Historians of town planning in Australia have focused too much attention on capital cities and largely ignored developments in regional cities between 1915 and 1945. This article seeks to redress the balance by directing attention to the regional city of Launceston in northern Tasmania, Australia where a town planning consciousness developed in the 1930s not least due to the work of organisations like the Northern Tasmanian Town Planning Association and prominent architects seeking to preserve and extend Launceston's reputation as a beautiful garden city. The City Council created tensions with the town planning movement because of its reluctance to spend large amounts on town planning projects. From 1943, in the euphoria of a new society promised in the post-war world, town planning assumed greater importance to meet heightened public expectations. The State Government supported town planning and passed the Town and Country Planning Act 1944, the first major planning legislation in Tasmania. At last the interests of the City Council, the State Government and citizens' groups converged. This article examines what was achieved in the assertive regional city of Launceston between 1915 and 1945.