MMBW Planning for Melbourne's Future (1954)

In 1954 the then MMBW produced a movie to promote development of the 1954 Planning Scheme, essentially the blueprint for the Melbourne we know today.

[@pervertt]

The MMBW should never have been abolished. It was the only organisation that was capable of delivering coordinated, metropolitan wide planning. Today, we have 32 local councils in Melbourne, each pushing its own agenda with little consideration for the bigger picture.

[@mikisaba9336]

pervertt the bigger picture my friend is $$$$$$$

[@jesusislukeskywalker4294]

wait until you real eyes they ALL work for satan corporation . ALSO coincidentally, that water at rest alway forms a level surface

[@medullaoblongata9670]

could not of been better said.

[@planetX15]

@@jesusislukeskywalker4294 realize*

[@patappleton6285]

That is the way of Satan's PROGRESS , remove planners and thinkers and replace them with overbearing bitches and effeminate men

[@stephencharman9604]

I'm amazed this doesn't have more views. This is a valuable historical document

[@gloglos100]

I agree, it’s excellent that it has been put by the site.

[@gloglos100]

I could weep for the dedicated Australians of the past and those still remaining doing their best for the country and the people.

[@jareddiamond6607]

During the lockdown, no-one watched parliament.

[@bigjulie3714]

funny that most of the "slum" houses would now be worth 1 million dollars!

[@rmcq1999]

Priced at, not worth.

[@chrisnewman7281]

Land not building as my brother calls them they’re knockdown job😊

[@stevewiles7132]

I remember as a twelve-year-old living in Campbellfield, looking at the large gutter running east/west under Sydney road and thinking, this would make a great road one day. It is now the ring road..

[@scana1979]

The inner-city slum shots were filmed around Fitzroy - the then-derelict row of shops at 6:35 still stands and is very much in use on the corner of Brunswick Street and Greeves Street. The rundown houses at 6:56 were located on the corner of Cowell Street and Little Hanover Street and were an early casualty of the slum abolition program. The terrace houses at 7:45 are partly still standing, part demolished around the corner on Fitzroy Street and Cowell Street.

[@pepperoniunicorn8641]

Fun Fact: This was the last time Melbourne planned anything!

[@mocknroll5790]

people are planning to leave

[@martyflint3849]

😂😂😂😂

[@gladiammgtow4092]

The CCP is buying Melbourne.

[@somedumbozzie1539]

@@mocknroll5790 Former Melbournite now Sydney sider since the 70's here, the jokes about the weather are all true, the only thing more changeable is Dan Andrews version of the truth.

[@xr6lad]

@@somedumbozzie1539 at least when I see dark clouds in Melbourne I don’t have to cover my car roof against hail damage; unlike Sydney.

[@pioneerjatt93]

everyone dressed up so well its amazing. such a beautiful footage

[@AlwaysThinkingPositive]

Both my dad and I worked for the MMBW, it was a great company

[@tomwarrilow8598]

What is that

[@Veldtian1]

@@tomwarrilow8598 Did you watch the intro to this vid?

[@peterthompson99]

Started my apprenticeship with MMBW in 1979. Great organisation at that time.

[@MrPropanePete]

This footage certainly brought back memories from the 50's.

[@danielspoon1234]

damn that orchestral arrangement

[@stennlake]

I was half expecting to see a truck stuck under the Montague bridge 😯

[@gloglos100]

Used to be great in the 1950. People were lean and healthy mostly. Food was good, wonderful grass fed healthy meat and some even in cities had hens. Shops closed at 12 noon on Saturday so everyone had a weekend holiday and lots of sport. Plain nasty now but banks are much much more wealthy.

[@Firehoonz]

Yep it was good under industrial capitalism. Not like this messed up financial capitalism we are living under now

[@petesmitt]

But look at all those white people, so wacist..

[@debtape84]

At 12.45 that park is on Beaconsfield Pde Albert Park opposite Bleak House Hotel. I used to play on that big swing with all the seats.

[@reverseuniverse2559]

From 5:00 onwards I was waiting for Godzilla to burst out of a building 😂 Excellent footage good work👍

[@scana1979]

Following this the MMBW had authority over road projects in the inner Melbourne metropolitan area instead of the Country Roads Board. The inner section of the Tullamarine Freeway from Strathmore and the South Eastern Freeway to Toorak Road along with the St Kilda Junction underpass were all built the MMBW standards. The CRB took over all road building from the 1970s.

[@YinandYangandGreen]

.... and the Eastern Freeway including all bridges were designed and built by the MMBW and private contractors.

[@nickkaravias1796]

Absolutely brilliant. Loved watching this.

[@OAS15]

5:20 i like how the music is way more chaotic than the scene it’s conveying.

[@johnboyd6943]

I'm in my 70s and am delighted to see my old high school at 17:10 to 17:14. The wonderful Camberwell High School.

[@adrianjackson2696]

7:00 peasant image in the slums of places like South Melbourne. 9:00 we had an outside pan service toilet in East Keilor 1958-1964 before we moved to North Balwyn - luxury !!

[@louisehoffen2295]

Loved Melbourne CBD at that time but we also had some very poor places. I was 22. Now where are our factories, have they gone forever and will Australia always rely on other countries for goods?

[@bernardmolan2976]

1954, the year Elvis Presley released his first song, That's All Right, with rock n roll taking a foothold in western culture, and Footscray Bulldogs won their first Grand Final.

[@himarit1484]

This is a valuable historical document but also great footage. Background music is beautifully incorporate with records to convey the atmosphere of days in the 1950s. I can't imagine how much effort they put to visualize the city. I m impressed.

[@scana1979]

The 1954 Planning scheme map at 11:10 can be viewed at Planning VicPlan Maps and Spatial Data. From the Map tab go to Layer List. Under Planning Scheme - Historic Zoning Maps - 1954 Historic Planning Scheme.

[@gorgen23]

This background music makes it feel like an Alfred Hitchcock movie

[@gordonayres2609]

Not really. It is typical of the kind of background music used in film shorts or newsreels in those days . It is upbeat and energetic and lilting - a now old fashioned type of style but its not Hitchcock theme . He used amazing film score writers such as Dimitri Tiomkin who are legendary now. Not like modern movie producers that use computer generated pap -the same one movie to the next.

[@adrianlongfellow]

I love this it touches the heart and soul so much..thank you for sharing

[@johnpro2847]

Yep ..out street in Doncaster was a dirt road , like a mud pit when it rained. All very expensive now.

[@jakartaman3365]

Not only that, but growing up in East Camberwell I remember going for a drive around 1960 ( I would have been 10 at the time ) and seeing just a sole Dickins store on the site that would become Doncaster Shoppingtown less than 10 years later.

[@vsvnrg3263]

ahhh the good old days. which was before i was born. 2:07, the building looks familiar. i spent a couple of particularly boring weeks making knives and forks here. 14:57 the west gate bridge is included but no kings way which ended up happening only a few years after this film was made.

[@bernardmolan2976]

Driving through the city when travelling from one side of the another is neaver easy and traditionally avoided, but not long ago, both pedestrian and vehicle congestion in Melbourne was almost unbelievable. A trip to the city would not in any way have been enjoyable. It was like this for many a decade but this madness could not have gone on like this forever. These scenes look honestly horrifying! Check out the music soundtrack at 4:52.

[@johnpro2847]

@ 6:00 J walking was very popular as well.

[@shaikmohamedghouse9081]

Early 50s make to understand hard work done by planning aerial survey university every land parcels were documented.Good documetry to develop urban and periurbab areas

[@aussiepete8914]

Outer suburbs back then was probably Glen Waverley lol

[@jamesdavis5517]

Glen Waverley was the eighties, it would have been orchards back when this fillum was made.. Mt Waverley was the fifties and sixties.

[@newshound2521]

Preston Im thinking is in the bush

[@christinejackson3922]

Wow this is so cool this is the Melbourne that my parents grow up in thanks for the insight

[@konkombotis5549]

It's interesting to see how Melbourne was planned in 1949 & how it sits today. The rate of Melbourne's population was growing each year by the size of the City of Geelong as growth extended outwards on Crown land. The MMBW was separated into 4 companies, all owned by the State Government. Unfortunately, today, the government is addressing population growth by building inner suburb apartments, which are a social disaster. The water pressure alone is quite low to service all the units in an apartment. If the government does not act and plan now, it will be a big problem in the next 20 years for all water, sewerage, drainage, gas & and electricity utilities.

[@jd4447]

Those same people would be rolling in their graves at the state of the CBD today.

[@mikevale3620]

Absolutely do not agree.

[@andyrob3259]

Not. We don’t plan. We just drop a plan brown bag full of cash and things get approved despite it obviously being wrong for an area or inadequate thought gone into it.

[@MrLeedebt]

I was gobsmacked as a teenager reading in a newspaper in the late 1960s that 70% of MMBW rates (water rates) went to paying debt. This was when Henry Bolte, a Liberal Premier, governed the state. There were MMBW bonds advertised in the newspapers every day. Today, with Neo-Liberal culture permeating governments of all outlooks, debt is looked upon as economic irresponsibility.

[@mattyd3079]

First thing i see is they put the plan to the people of Melbourne before it went to parliament. Seems that now a lot of dodgy deals are done behind closed doors, terrible planning with zero consultation, shoddy cheaply made unlivable hong kong style death trap apartment buildings, and satellite suburbs with poor infrastructure that was promised but never delivered... am i missing anything?

[@mattyd3079]

@we are doomed It's like there's two kinds of people involved in planning these days. One group is in it to make as much money as possible - and the other has some sort of political agenda (often one and same actually) - both of which means that anything remotely useful or easy on the eye never gets built.

[@leighsheehan1119]

Bring back the MMBW

[@andrewmica1914]

The Planning minister in Melbourne can learn from this footage that back then they thought of their citizens and wellbeing of wide Road's. Today in 2022 over the past decade we in Melbourne have new Estates that are an abomination of planning Greed. Why do I say this well the roads are narrow limiting emergency vehicles entering the residential streets as cars of these residents have no where to park their vehicles in their own drive way as the vehicle sticks out onto the pavement. There is no alternative but to park on these narrow streets yet limiting on coming vehicles to see who can go first through the street. The streets because if greedy developers haven't planned but thought of themselves. The size of the house and plot if land is down narrowest of margins where homes touch other dwellings. In Tarneit there are far fewer street lights per street say to that of white neighborhoods such as Wallan Epping Mernda ... Do these people realise they ought not to pay rates as the roads are diplorable. Did u know Coles and Woolworths through the Greed of developers have managed to create new estates where the entire estate is depended on these food chains by building a shopping centre that's all fine but where are the high street shops like Australia post the local milk bar fish and chips shops.... Our local Planning Authorities are evil by destroying community neighborhoods. Small back yards you can't even have room to put a Garden shed... The level of corrupt officials allowing this to occur in Melbourne is a disgrace there ought to be an investigation into local council Authorities.... These new Estates are the slums of tomorrow. Oh by the way ...The public transport for bus users is also a disgrace as there are no Bus shelters..... Rain hail or blistering heat I see immigrants waiting either standing for hours or sitting on the road side curb waiting for the bus. Disgusting .... Did u know that the Tarneit train station was to have other rail stations as well... They built a rail station that resembles a prison facility with concrete and steel with endless carpark of at least 300 meters to the nearest platform. You have to get to the rail station before 5am as the carpark fills up very quick. Melbourne is a city destroyed from its grace and beauty.... It's turning into an ugly concrete over crowded over priced city where a new emerging underclass and new homeless people wandering the streets because rent and housing is unaffordable. All attributed to foreign investors pushing working class suburbs through the roof.

[@darneyoung537]

What’s happened today , nothing goes to the people before parliament. We just get told it’s getting done

[@thomasdoherty1422]

Can anyone tell me the name of the school building at 17:10? No doubt another one of Percy Edgar Everitt’s Art Deco masterpieces

[@beanfotchott3303]

It almost looks like Camberwell high

[@bloggaloggs]

I was wondering the same. Anyone?

[@JC-pg3cy]

crazy..urban sprawl was a problem in the 1950s and I guess nothing has changed even today !!

[@LilliR4116]

Urban sprawl in the 50s? That was nothing compared to today. It's full on busy, BS full of international everything!! You can't even move, let alone breathe 🙄😤☺️

[@redplanet7163]

Damn, that dramatic, dischordant music made it sound like hell for a while there.

[@isis082008]

i love melbourne, thanku for this video...

[@gloglos100]

1954 saw loads of immigrants. Overwhelmed everything. There was a shortage of building materials postwar too. House size was limited to 12 squares but the mid century modern architectural movement was giving house plans and how to build furniture published in magazines. The new housing push was for excellent design for anyone who could build the simplest of homes. No longer dark boxes but wonderful Aus design for our climate and for families.

[@jesusislukeskywalker4294]

yep

[@divineprosperity8]

9.42 Woild love to know what roads they are?

[@hypercomms2001]

16:37. Although they had good intentions I am glad they did not go ahead with the plan for St Kilda junction...

[@hypercomms2001]

PS: Because city planners thought cars were the future, they neglected public transport for a very long time, and for that reason Melb ran the “Red Rattlers” for 60 years...

[@vsvnrg3263]

@@hypercomms2001 ,for "city planners" read "liberal government".

[@hypercomms2001]

@@vsvnrg3263 You mean Henry Bolte...? He did not do much for public transport....

[@vsvnrg3263]

@@hypercomms2001 ,yeah, mate. the whole bloody lot of them. by the way, my favourite trains were the dog boxes. so there was a benefit in them not doing much. if they had done more my beloved dog boxes would have been removed decades before they were removed. and they still did lots to the st. kilda junction. just not was planned in this film.

[@vsvnrg3263]

@@hypercomms2001 , he also knowingly, intentionally and willingly hanged the last person to be hanged in this country for a crime he didn't commit. knowing full well that the pentridge guard supposedly shot by ryan, who had no gun, was shot accidentally by a fellow prison guard. bolte did this because he knew it would help him at the next election. and it did.

[@baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaam]

Back when councils weren't too concerned about zoning, the "neighbourhood character", and what you did with the property you own in general. What happened?

[@joereedsmith1531]

It was one of the greatest planning feats of all time and it stood the test of time well into the 80s. Then Govts got in bed with property developers and that is why we have the shambles we have now. State Govt subbied out Planning to Councils what a mess.

[@josephclearnight3403]

I loved it ,the 80s what a era that was...it just couldn't happen again

[@LilliR4116]

I wish it could, what a time.... I was in my teens. The world was a different place to the one we have now, 😊

[@adrianjackson2696]

2:00 all those car plants are gone now. UK Standard/Triumph and US GMH cars. My 1960 Triumph TR3A Roadster was assembled here. 5:30 see the superior British cars made of steel not plastic.

[@sutherlandA1]

Hahaha superior British cars, the Japanese were a sleeping giant at the time ready to decimate inferior quality western models

[@adrianjackson2696]

@@sutherlandA1 - See my orange 1960 Triumph TR3A Roadster in the round photo on left. Still going strong after 60 years. Are there any Japanese cars from 1960 still on the road in Australia I wonder?

[@sutherlandA1]

@@adrianjackson2696 more than plenty actually, rust isn't so much of an issue down Under so the mechanicals can live on and on without the constant fettling and expense of the Eurotrash that litter our junkyards, there's a good reason why Triumph cars (and British Leyland for that matter) don't exist no more. Your roadster is a real beauty btw, a real credit to your care, passion and dedicated ownwrship

[@adrianjackson2696]

@@sutherlandA1 I also own a 1985 Range Rover Classis V8 made of aluminum except for the bonnet. No rust with aluminum. Land Rover started using aluminum after WW2 when there was plenty of surplus aeroplane aluminum.

[@nicholasgeorge1384]

Why did they get rid of the MMBW , bring it back !!.

[@zamansyed86]

Now these south Melbourne slums are worth millions of dollars

[@sutherlandA1]

I thought the Melbourne metropolitan board of works only did water utilities and sewerage? This film sounds like it was responsible for all kinds of infrastructure, services and planning. MMBW was abolished in 1992 and succeeded by Melbourne Water

[@johnd8892]

Yes. Lots of non water related functions. I remember the MMBW major input into the Joint Road Planning Group into the eighties. The Warburton railway line may have been closed in 1965 partly to prevent urban sprawl into the Yarra Ranges on MMBW advice. Railways being a big part of urban sprawl as evidenced in the 1954 MMBW major report arising from these studies.

[@chrisnewman7281]

apparently, a lot of the old buildings were too graceful for some people in the city by the 50s a lot of Melbourne best examples of Victorianvera architecture were under the wreckers hammer

[@Dohjustdoit]

North Melbourne get a look in from 10minute+ mark.

[@rik3849]

Can we bring back the mmbw to finish the Monash?

[@sharonryan2815]

Rather depressing that the last few minutes of the commentary are just as applicable today as they were when this film was made.

[@robertwestwood9340]

Really? I like to think it amazing that our city keeps growing, sure it has its bad points but growth is essential. You wouldn't want to end up like Detroit would you? that is what would happen if growth stopped or was limited, it would be a depressed, run down place.

[@sharonryan2815]

@@robertwestwood9340 My meaning was not to stop growth but that we still haven't learnt how to plan for it.

[@gloglos100]

Robert Westwood no you are wrong. Australia has limited water and hence soil formation and agricultural land. We can’t support more than 23 million or so sustainably, abundance that is inclusive of Asian students and global visitors and work visa holders. Nothing whatever to do with Detroit, that was lack of employment fuckwit.

[@nicholasgeorge1384]

Labor accused John Howard of wonting to take us back to the 1950s , life was over all better back then .

[@zoltrix7779]

Sure it was.

[@fabmanly1070]

Not if you were female.

[@orgasmified]

Retrospective apologies to the hard working folk that lived in the "slum" conditions.

[@xr6lad]

I’d like to thank the Elders from many nations; past present and future who arrived after 1788 and have built a great nation and lay a good foundation for the future. 👍👍

[@mikevale3620]

It was interesting to see the crowded trams and trains but the implication was to make matters worse by expanding the roads network. Let's be grateful the roads planning didn't decimate Melbourne to the degree that it could have.

[@biggils8894]

What are you even talking about? Building roads is a bad thing? We actually didn’t build them big enough was the problem!

[@lj3571]

Amazing footage when Melbourne had it all, very unlike today!!!

[@ValeriePallaoro]

Wait .. this film is about Melbourne not having it all; it's about planning to have it all. Suburbs with out infrastructure, too many people for the city; women not able to push a baby carriage to the shops - where you not watching the film??

[@the.bronze]

Marvellous Melbourne

[@nicholasgeorge1384]

It was better back then , there are to many people now with the traffic nightmare that comes with it .

[@rocket7697]

Where did they get this depressing music?

[@jesusislukeskywalker4294]

if it's not from my station, then the music is satan corporation

[@user-ph1cd6ri7t]

1954

[@Dave_Sisson]

That is what was called "Light Music". It was highly popular for a couple of decades after the war and used in films such as this as well as the intros to radio dramas and quiz shows at a time when not everyone owned a television. Here's a UK Light Music playlist, although most local shows had their own locally produced themes in the same style. kzbin.info/www/bejne/l2HZlHWmqa9nnas

[@scoutjohnson1803]

How to we survive now with 3 times the population?

[@purewater3292]

Basically before the sudos came in the picture lol

[@felab5313]

SCARY 33 AFTER THE MOOD FLOODS.

[@Tracertme]

Wish they would spend 100m today on transportation

[@sue6313]

Great film footage, horrendous sound track

[@andrewmica1914]

People should not vote for any Polly... The infrastructure in Melbourne is a disgrace. Calder freeway as well as the western hwy and Sydney Road campberfield.. Totally a mess

[@singsingsingsong111]

And the joints still fucked.

[@bigears4426]

This was made earlier than 54 or they used some old footage as the holden being made was a fx

[@johnd8892]

That car was made until 1953. People did not throw away a car when it got a year or two old. But yes , dates of films are often the release dates and not the filming date.

[@jackmag4056]

Not one mention of the west ,

[@simonf8902]

Melbourne still looks like a mess.

[@michelekeck7716]

I notice nearly all the planners of the Mmbw are men and it probably never occurred to them. The difficulties of negotiating a quagmire in heels.

[@albertsmart1221]

17:09 Camberwell High School

[@liambrock3831]

Oh how i wish I could go back and make them build the Doncaster Rail

[@IcanbePsycho]

Melbourne was better back then.

[@Ric-Phillips]

Ah… American jazz - music of the slums😀

[@RaveDave871]

Quite right MMBW abolished. It would never have got 🌈✔

[@hedylamarr1637]

melbourne birth place of aussie manufacturing...now nothing

[@RS-rj5sh]

MMBW.....known by those that worked there back in the day as the "Board of Jerks".....😬

[@carabatzis25]

Only 6% live in flats...(cries in 2021)

[@danw3735]

2024 called, lol

[@Layingflat]

Move forward to Melbourne 2024. Melbourne has the largest Train network in the World, FACT.

[@skynest1016]

*tram

[@ollie2sik]

And it’s become an ever expanding third world toilet in a mere 70 years

[@ddyololol]

who's here from urban forest ecosystems lol

[@danw3735]

Look at it today, still ranked one of the best cities in the world multiple times, love my hometown! :D

[@georgebronte840]

WASPs only

[@brendanbloom6206]

Better for it to

[@petesmitt]

9:52 schoolyard bully..

[@petrusamp7792]

sub division has ruined this plan.

[@chrispetritsch1291]

Melbourne looked like a bit of a miserable shithole back then. Thankfully things are a bit different now. Pretty much.

[@jayzee1412]

The city is fkd now

[@c..8177]

卧槽！我看到了Coles！

[@John-ob6eh]

Yes, coles in the city also had a restaurant....like ikea has now!!

[@cedonullidude]

@@John-ob6ehIt was good. 👍

[@Dohjustdoit]

The music is really terrible, totally inappropriate....better turn the sound off when music starts...

[@arrowb3408]

HAHAHA...overall the citycity old municipal plan remain THE SAME in CBD gridlock streets. Hahaha... never see any ships mooring along Yarra River. But that chocal crank STILL sustains. For the offload chocal PLACE, now become a BIG parking lot with a lot of graffiti arts on the walls......STF......

[@johnpage7735]

My grandfather (Donald Niker) was a works inspector for these projects.

[@dalediamond]

My beautiful city of my familes generations now turned into a toilet

[@Joshua-jj4xn]

Shut up Dale

[@AT-st5dr]

Not one Asian or Indian in sight.