Plan For Living

From the Film Australia Collection. Made by the National Film Board 1949. Directed by Eric Thompson. In Australia with its rapid development there is a need for insistence upon town planning. This film illustrates what has already taken place in our leading capital cities, where planning has been haphazard. The contrast is made between unplanned Sydney, and planned Melbourne and Canberra. A plea is made that the errors of the past, which have resulted in slums and other blots upon our towns should be avoided in the future, by planning for the future.

[@MS-qd6bm]

They thought it was bad back then, should see it today.

[@HandyAndyTechTips]

Unfortunately, even in the Australia of 2022, there's still not much planning for the future happening 😢

[@AlphaGeekgirl]

Contrary to many of the negative comments here (undoubtedly, from those who have never lived in the CBD), I can guarantee you that, as someone who HAS lived and worked continuously in Pitt Street for almost 45 years, that things have improved dramatically with regards to planning to reduce overcrowding, pedestrian and vehicular congestion, as well increasing flow, open space and ease of getting from point A to point B , despite more than 5000% increase in population and tourism. The number of vehicles per day are less than 40% of what they were in 1975.

[@robertceroli3512]

Working out what period. Judging by the houses, cars dress atired and no holden 48 215 so I'm guessing mid forties

[@jonathansturm4163]

1948 I think.

[@joeyphaahla]

1949

[@MarkWhich]

It it's that bad then then how will it look in 70+ years. Oh hang-on a minute we are already there.

[@freeman10000]

Those "cramped and sombre houses" are worth a fortune nowadays.

[@chrisbarnes6312]

and thats whats important isnt it

[@freeman10000]

@@chrisbarnes6312 Just stating a fact not a moral judgment.

[@cameronfahey5122]

Don't mind them, what a strange thing to get shitty about! I thought the same thing when I saw the cramped and sombre houses. Try renting in Newtown now let along buying!

[@ems1488]

Being only born in the mid 90's, I always love learning history and wish I was born much earlier to live these days. I always find it fascinating and amazing how life was back then!

[@johnnywadd3020]

gee it hasnt changed much

[@jamesgovett2501]

Back then in 1948 our population was was a fraction of what it is today, it seems to me that all the improvements and new roads bridges etc to make the traffic flow better over the last 74 years might have been alright if the population remained the same in the capital cities but with the huge increase in human population has cancelled out any benefits and has just flatlined and nothing has changed to move the masses here in Melbourne and is far worse than anytime to move about the city and burbs than ever before especially in the peak hours

[@maggiea6766]

And it's just getting worse.

[@jonathansturm4163]

Still waiting for the planned rail link between Hobart and the Huon Valley! One hundred years and still counting...

[@planetX15]

Nice video! Thankyou!

[@jesusislukeskywalker4294]

Red Ensign at 0:03

[@danrobinson572]

Good 👍 video

[@BrassLock]

At 9:37 Perth is mentioned in one sentence. Otherwise, the whole of Western Australia is totally ignored, as if it isn't really part of the Commonwealth's Consciousness -no wonder it was referred to as *"The Cinderella State".* And yet in 1955 the _Gordon Stephenson and Alistair Hepburn Report_ established the first regional plan for Perth, Fremantle and the Metropolitan Region, encompassing freeways, land-use zoning and open recreational spaces. Subsequent revisions resulted in the Metropolitan Regional Planning Authority in 1961, the Metropolitan Regional Scheme in 1963, and the Corridor Plan for Perth in 1970. Criticism has focused on the primacy of the automobile 🚘 although efforts were made to acknowledge the need for Public Transport, it seems that most *Sand Gropers* need a car to survive.

[@kymyeoward306]

The elevated highway planned for Sydney in 1949 became - Melbourne’s CitiLink in 1999. Thanks to Premier Jeff Kennett and his vision for the project to be funded by tolls. Limited government budgets meant it couldn’t be government-funded.

[@mickgatz214]

The 'Town Planners' back in the day were on good drugs and did not know what they were actually doing......

[@metricstormtrooper]

Many many inaccuracies, and a large degree of ignorance by the film makers in the start of this film, history has proven the lies the British told the world and themselves about this land, and who would have thought ,a government, in fact many governments building housing for the public. Those cramped and dingy places are some of the most expensive homes in Sydney.

[@bury_the_elite65294]

One of those lies the British told the world was that they were the first white people to sight the massive continent known as Terra Australis. But they weren't. If you know your history, it was the Dutch who made it here long before the Brits did. Dirk Hartog was the first, braving the Roaring Forties to land his tiny, fragile ship at Shark Bay, near what is now Geraldton, W.A., in 1616. IIRC from studying history, the Portuguese also sailed here before the British did.

[@JulianFoley]

So many lies. And the essential lie that underpins the Australian consciousness is that these were the "first settlers" and that this entire continent was devoid of any person with a claim to it - the doctrine of Terra Nullius. The best that can be said of the movie is that it now begins to describe Australia's enduring shame at the treatment of the sovereign nations that were established there with a remarkably sustainable society and governance at the time of Cook, and for over 60,000 years beforehand - our First Nations.

[@bury_the_elite65294]

This. The traditions of white Anglo-Saxon Australia have a strong tendency to distort our history. Fortunately there are those of us who realize that Australia didn't begin with Cook, but there are 65 millennia (and counting!) of history to be found in the Dreamtime. More people need to wake up to this, though...

[@njkauto2394]

Yes, and sadly denied in this production was that the first roads were NOT in-fact built over bullock tracks but the trade ways of indigenous peoples. It's absurd to think peoples existing for thousands of years and constantly trading with neighbours would have no defined pathways. The myth that Europeans didn't simply exploit what was already in existence is keystone to Terra nullius.