Grantham Green

I don't think anything intrigues me more than the history of Melbourne's suburbs. The moment in which my interest was initially piqued can be traced back to my teenage years, which entailed many long walks from Ginifer station to my home in St. Albans East. The most efficient route I could take wound its way through a small pocket of St. Albans, wedged awkwardly between the Western Ring Road, Sunshine Hospital, and a linear reserve accommodating transmission power lines (as a side note, I later managed this area in the 2011 Census, which was both enlightening and endlessly frustrating given some residents maintained a bizarre opposition to the Census on grounds of privacy).

The area from above; the large building complex is an aged care facility.
Also note Leila Cl, a ghost street (or a mistake) beneath transmission lines.

The area, despite being located less than 200 metres from my home, possessed an entirely different character. A blue stone sign denoted the area as "Grantham Green". Rather than being entirely comprised of detached brick veneer homes, as per the outer suburban norm, someone thought to build a dozen or so townhouses on land overlooking the Kororoit Creek; they also took the even more unusual step of providing seating and deciduous trees along a paved brick footpath. It had a very distinct "New Urbanism" vibe to it, not that I knew it at the time: back then, something just felt weird about the fancy name that reminded me of Graham Greene, and it didn't help that the main road was incredibly narrow with car parking relegated to a lot behind the townhouses.

They sure liked bricks a lot. 
The townhouses seem a lot like display homes to me, too.

The sign, as depicted in a lazy Google Maps screenshot.
The light-coloured building is a community hub. 

For an outer suburban development, it sure didn't seem to place the humble private car in a starring role. Turns out I wasn't too far off the mark:

Well, at least they tried. 
I wonder when they realised the area is completely devoid of public transit.

My early investigations, back in the mid-2000s, resulted in a single document issued by the State Government, commending the development of the estate. Vague references were made to the concept of sustainability, which I'm under the impression wasn't so much of a buzz word back in the early 1990s. Unfortunately, this document is long gone now. That being said, my online searches now are somewhat more fruitful than they were a decade ago. Two documents issued by St. Albans Meadows Primary School note the isolated nature of the area, as well as the severe lack of public transport - again, odd for an estate touted as 'sustainable' and with a relatively car-hostile vibe to it. The school itself was established in 1980, which initially lead me to believe the area was a little older than I initially thought; however, Deakin University possesses an illustration of Grantham Green produced by the City of Sunshine and "Urban Land Authority" in 1991, which clarifies the matter somewhat (sadly this can't be accessed online).

Further research reveals that Gregory Burgress Architects conducted consultancy work for the ULA pertaining to a number of outer suburban housing estates. Perhaps such projects were actioned en masse in the early 1990s, as they allude to a number of other developments with flowery names located in less-than-desirable suburbs - "Pandora Crescent", Croydon; "Woodgrove", Werribee; "Meadow Heights" and "Roxburgh Park", Broadmeadows; "Strathallan", Mont Park; and "Copperfield" in Keilor.

A Trove search indicates that Victoria University is in possession of a development handbook titled "The Grantham Green experience" (which sounds more like a music outfit and less like a policy directive), so I'll be checking that out in the coming week for clues. I initially thought it was a little weird that VU would be in possession of such a document but further research indicates an "Urban Studies" unit was once taught there (as indicated by this document) which also quotes the following:

I get a sense this project was ahead of its time.

The library at uni has another short document, "Grantham Green, St Albans, Victoria: a study in energy efficiency", which I'll be picking up from the ERC in a few days. Aside from that, there are minimal media references, with The Age (April 28) noting the "fully developed" status of the estate as of 2002 and nothing more.

This leaves me with a frustrating conclusion: whatever documentation exists to support the estate and its rationale is probably long gone or hidden deep in a government archive somewhere. This issue is in step with Solomon Heights in the sense that relevant information is clearly not readily available, for whatever reason. Without inferring too much meaning from this, I get the impression nobody thought to document the process or long-term outcomes of the estate, which is a shame as I imagine it'd make for an interesting case study.

Nevertheless, my search will continue, and hopefully the two aforementioned documents will shed some light on the issue (I'll keep looking for more evidence of projects undertaken by the ULA too). 

In the meantime, I can find some amusement in the street names which perplexed me during my Census tenure; and, as a final comment, it's nice to see the Grantham Green name still lives on in the form of a small park. 

Just a field
(1966 1st edition Melways)

In all its non-field glory: behold the strange gemstone-related street name theme.
Additionally, one of the creeks now runs beneath a reserve.
(2014 41st edition Melways)