APPENDIX 3: DETAILED COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS
DATA
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AUSTRALIAN HYDRO TOWNS
VICTORIA
Rubicon
First major hydro-electric scheme in Australia, but small compared to later Kiewa,
Snowy Mountains and Tasmanian developments. In the early 1950s, Rubicon had
about twenty houses. Later, they were sold off and moved, and in 1999, only one
weatherboard house was left52.
Bogong
Built by SEC 1940s. Much smaller than Mount Beauty. Vast majority of original
buildings survive, albeit some modified, and few new constructions have been added
– well preserved, with fairly good integrity.
Mt Beauty
Built by SEC mid 1940s-early1950s. Architect-designed, purpose-built company town.
Extent and layout well-preserved. Very high percentage of SEC houses survive.
Extent protected by buffer parks.
Eildon
Sugarloaf Dam was constructed between 1914 and
1929. Capacity was enlarged in 1935, but demand
for water from Goulburn valley farmers led to
investigations to increase supplies. It was decided
that the best option was to significantly enlarge
Sugarloaf Dam. Works on the dam began in June
1951, with the dam being renamed Eildon. A hydroelectric generating station was part of the planned
works.
Dam enlarged and hydro electric plant installed for
SEC in early 1950s. Construction of the Eildon
township began in 1950, to house the 4000 workers
engaged on the project. Houses were pre-cut and
fabricated in England before being shipped out and
Layout of Eildon township (© RACV 2002)
assembled at Eildon. The houses are still called
‘Utah houses’, a reference to the company that
contracted to build the dam, the Utah Construction Company of the United States. To
provide variety, fourteen different house designs were used. Services including roads,
water supply, drainage, sewerage and electricity were installed. Dam construction was
completed in 1955, and at the time it was the largest water storage in Australia.
52
Rubicon the Town, by former resident Julie Peters, 1999, accessed at http://home.mira.net/~janie/dream/rubtown.htm
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NSW: SNOWY MOUNTAINS HYDRO TOWNS
Cooma
Cooma is an old town whose population was increased fourfold when the Snowy
Mountains Authority (SMA) made it their headquarters. 700 houses were built. ‘North
Cooma’ is essentially a well-preserved and intact hydro town. “Two Dutch companies
set up Civil & Civic Contractors in Australia under the management of GJ Dusseldorp,
who recruited tradesmen in Holland for the first contract to supply and erect
prefabricated houses at Cooma, the administrative headquarters of the Snowy
Mountains Hydro-Electric Authority” (AHC). Another contract was with the Italian
building firm Legnami Pasotti. Between June and December 1951, they sent 300
workmen from Northern Italy, under a contract to supply and import labour and
materials for the construction of 101 houses, staff quarters complex, a base camp and
the head office building.
Houses were prefabricated as kits overseas, and shipped to Sydney. Transported to
Cooma, they were erected at a central site, and then moved to their final positions.
Larger house, typical of senior staff accommodation (photo
R Kaufman, February 2006)
Former mess and store buildings (photo R Kaufman,
February 2006)
Typical junior staff houses at Cooma (photo R Kaufman,
February 2006)
‘North Cooma’ is probably the largest and best-preserved of the Australian hydro
towns of the mid-twentieth century, but lacks the context of the other hydro towns
examined here, because of its isolation from the working infrastructure of the scheme,
and the mountains.
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Cabramurra
Still an SMA town – reduced in size from construction days. “Today it is a pretty
township with limited commercial accommodation”. Much smaller than Mount Beauty.
Talbingo
New town built by SMA (replaced old town, which was just a few buildings, and is now
under Jounama Pond). Now mostly privately owned. New Talbingo has an
“architectural style is very much ‘SMA Construction Town circa 1960’”. Much smaller
than Mount Beauty.
Khancoban
Originally built to accommodate workers and their families during construction of the
Snowy Mountains Scheme. Smaller than Mount Beauty, and lacks the ‘model town’
layout. Many original buildings survive.
Adaminaby
Relocated town, site shifted because Lake Eucumbene would flood old site. New
town laid out by SMA. However, many old houses were moved, and other residents
took up grants to build new houses of their own design.
Other SMA towns
Most of the large construction camps no longer exist (eg Sue City, Island Bend etc
etc). Jindabyne (another older town which was moved) has been extensively altered,
with much modern development.
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TASMANIAN HYDRO TOWNS
In Tasmania, the principal hydro township developments were the pre-World War 2
villages of Waddamana, Shannon and Tarraleah, the post-war villages of Butlers
Gorge, Bronte Park, Trevallyn and Wayatinah, and the ‘modern’, designed hydro
towns of Poatina, Gowrie Park and Strathgordon. Bogong has similarities with the
post-war Tasmanian hydro towns, while Mount Beauty has many parallels with the
later, designed, ‘model towns’ of Poatina, Gowrie Park and Strathgordon.53
The surviving purpose-built Hydro towns in Tasmania are today small villages, and
some are used as resorts. The original extent in size, layout & fabric is relatively
poorly preserved. Houses were prefabricated locally, many at Devonport - Luck
Brothers began an unusual business where an assembly line built complete houses
for transport and erection at central Tasmanian Hydro villages54.
Bronte Park
This is a tiny village on the Marlborough
Highway 5km from the Lyell Highway and
152km from Hobart. It was a new style
village built by the Hydro Electric
Commission soon after World War 2, set
up to house workers and their families
working on several hydro schemes that
were being built in the area. The old HEC
huts have been turned into a 'highland
village' with chalet accommodation and, in
turn, they have attracted other specialist
accommodation to the area.
Part of the Bronte Park village (photo © Hydro Tasmania)
Strathgordon
A village built by the Hydro Electric Commission to house the workers on the Gordon
River Power Scheme. It still houses maintenance personnel and also caters for
tourists. Situated 159km west of Hobart on the Gordon River Road, on the shores of
Lake Pedder. (“Today Strathgordon is a tiny settlement which is only a glimmer of the
thriving town which was occupied in the 1970s by workers building the dams” - Fairfax
“Walkabout” travel guide).
Plan of Strathgordon (image © Hydro Tasmania)
Strathgordon shopping centre (photo © Hydro Tasmania)
53
Considerable historical information is available on Hydro Tasmania’s web-pages, under their Cultural Heritage Program
54
Information from “Web Weave Tasmania” web-site – Towns, Cities, Mountains & Lakes in Tasmania
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Gowrie Park
Located 16km south of Sheffield, Gowrie Park was built to house construction workers
during the Mersey-Forth Power Development Scheme. In 1969 there were 1800
people working on the project. Today Gowrie Park is only a hint of its former self.
(Fairfax “Walkabout” travel guide)
Gowrie Park from the air (photo © Hydro Tasmania)
Town plan of Gowrie Park, late 1960s (image © Hydro
Tasmania)
Tarraleah
Tarraleah is a Hydro Electric Commission village situated in the centre of the power
generating activities. The village was built as a facility to house the engineers and
construction workers for the Hydro Electricity Commission's Clark Dam project.
Construction began in 1934, and rough camps were strung out along the canal. The
Commission supplied selected workers in the No 2 Camp area with 100 palings to
build their own huts. This camp became Tarraleah. Other buildings and services
including communal wash-house, store, hall, police hut and school were added during
the 1930s and early 1940s, and the town was surveyed in 1943.
Today, Tarraleah still houses operational staff on the Tarraleah and the Tungatinah
power stations. The township has grown slowly in the past few decades, but only
twelve Hydro bungalows survive – these have been carefully conserved and are used
for tourist accommodation. They are advertised in tourism literature.
Construction of Tarraleah (photo © National Archives of
Australia)
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Tarraleah township from the air (image © Hydro Tasmania)
107
Butlers Gorge
The first building in Butlers Gorge township was moved to the site in 1938, but
construction did not begin in earnest until 1940. Butlers Gorge is acknowledged as
the first designed town to be built for the Tasmanian hydro electric schemes, and
represented a major shift in policy for workers’ accommodation:
“Many people have described Butlers Gorge as the Grandfather of the
Commission villages and the first of the true construction villages. Over the
years the Commission villages have certainly improved in standards of
accommodation and amenities from the pattern set at Butlers Gorge; but at
that time the village was as good as similar establishments in other parts of
Australia. Building a construction village with married quarters was
pioneering work for the Commission. It had never before given much
conscious thought to the social side of its responsibilities for construction
workers. It was nothing new to offer accommodation to employees, but the
decision to offer housing to the married workmen, rather than just to staff,
was new. It was taken as much to avoid the shack and shanty situation that
had developed as from a real desire to encourage families.” 55
Butlers Gorge from the air - shows a rectangular grid layout
(image © Hydro Tasmania)
Night in the main street of Butlers Gorge in winter
(image © Hydro Tasmania)
Waddamana
A village on the banks of the Ouse River.
It is 49km north of Ouse on the
Waddamana Road, and used by the
Hydro Electric Commission for workers in
the Waddamana Power Station and other
power schemes in the area. Waddamana
was the first of the villages constructed by
the Hydro Electric Commission, and its
growth was organic. In context of the
times,
little
planning
went
into
accommodation for workers. Today, the
village is privately owned, and several
houses survive. The Waddamana Power
Museum is at the site of Tasmania's first
hydro-electric power station, built in 1910.
Waddamanna in 1922 (image © Hydro Tasmania)
55
Extract from Hydro Construction Villages - Butlers Gorge, Hydro Tasmania’s Cultural Heritage Program web-site,
http://www.hydro.com.au/education/discovery/hcv/index.html
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Surviving house at Waddamanna (photo © Waddamanna
Field Study Centre)
Surviving house at Waddamanna (photo © Waddamanna Field
Study Centre)
Poatina
Poatina was designed by the Hydro Electric Commission, and construction began in
1957. The creation of the village spelt the virtual end of Waddamana village, and
Poatina was also the last of the dual-purpose construction/operational villages built by
the Commission. Later villages were built with a view to a short-term life span.
Poatina is now a tourist centre for people interested in fishing and exploring the Great
Western Tiers56.
Design plan for Poatina, late 1950s (image © Hydro
Tasmania)
Poatina village, from the air (photo © Hydro Tasmania)
Wayatinah
A village built by the Hydro Electric Commission 24km west of Ouse, on the western
bank of the Wayatinah Lagoon. Now almost deserted.
56
Fairfax on-line Walkabout travel guide
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SOME OTHER PURPOSE-BUILT TOWNS IN VICTORIA
CONSTRUCTION TOWNS
Yallourn & Yallourn North
Yallourn was designed by the SEC’s Chief Architect, Alfred La Gerche, who joined the
SEC at the invitation of the Director, Sir John Monash in 1921, and served until 1938.
La Gerche also designed the SEC Head Office and the Electricity Supply Department
buildings in Melbourne. The following summarises the history of Yallourn:
Yallourn was no ordinary town. It had a planned life and a planned death.
Owned by the State Electricity Commission of Victoria, Yallourn was
designed as a model town in 1921 to house employees coming to the
banks of the Latrobe River to mine brown coal and generate electricity for
the state. The latest technology employed in this mammoth undertaking
drew admiration and praise from visitors at home and abroad, and the town
mirrored the meticulous planning of the industrial enterprise. ‘Residence in
Yallourn’, explained the SEC’s first chairman, Sir John Monash, in 1920,
‘should be nearly as ideal as it is possible to make’.
Until the 1950s, brown coal mining and electricity generation were
concentrated at Yallourn, but with the sharp increase in demand for
electricity in the postwar years, the SEC’s operations spread throughout the
Latrobe Valley. An industrial region emerged as a brown coal mine,
briquette factory and power station were built at Morwell and plans were
made for a gigantic power station and open cut near Traralgon. With
employees living from Moe to Traralgon and beyond, the model town of
Yallourn was no longer vital for the SEC’s operations. In the 1960s, the
SEC announced that it would demolish the town to mine the coal that lay
underneath. By the mid 1980s, the town had disappeared.57
Aerial view of Yallourn showing layout - nd (image ©
Museum of Victoria)
57
‘Attic house’, Yallourn, 1947 (image © National Library of
Australia)
Excerpt from The Development of the Latrobe Valley, on Monash University Gippsland Campus
http://www.gippsland.monash.edu.au/campus/history/history1.shtml
web-site,
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Monash Square, Yallourn - nd (image © Museum of
Victoria)
New housing at Yallourn, 1950, showing Winwood Duplex
6 houses as used at Mount Beauty (image © Museum of
Victoria)
The layout was complex, appearing in aerial photographs to be fan-like from the
commercial/community area. Housing appeared to be in arc-like sectors, each based
on the rectangular grid. The township was relocated/rebuilt as ‘Yallourn North’ in the
1970s & 80s. A relocated SECV ‘Attic house’ from old Yallourn has been identified at
Toongabbie, Vic, by the Australian Heritage Commission.
Rawson
Built as a workers camp for Thompson Dam construction, in the early 1970s(?). Now
functions as a small town, converted principally to tourist accommodation. Extent has
been considerably reduced.
Dartmouth
A new township was built in the early 1970s at Dartmouth, Victoria, in association with
construction of the Dartmouth Dam.
New pre-fabricated housing in Dartmouth town area, 1973
(image © State Library of Victoria)
Construction camp, 1975 (image © State Library of
Victoria)
Mildura
This was a very significant, early, planned and purpose-built Victorian town. In 1886,
Alfred Deakin, Commissioner for Public Works, visited California to investigate model
irrigation settlements that had been formed by Canadian brothers William and George
Chaffey, with a view to opening up unsettled, semi-arid lands in north-west Victoria.
The Chaffeys hastily sold up and acquired land at Renmark and Mildura. Mildura was
to be a new irrigation settlement, and the town plan the Chaffeys adopted was based
on Californian models, laid out on a rectangular grid with avenues with American
names running north-south, and streets with numerical names running east-west. The
main thoroughfare is of great width, because the original design incorporated
tramlines. A promotional scheme was begun in 1887, and over time Mildura became
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an important centre of agriculture, and river port58. It is now a city of some 22,000
people, but retains within its core the town laid out in 1887. The original street naming
survives.
Ski Villages
Most developed as agglomerations of lodges, and while ‘new’ they were not planned
and purpose-built in a short time-frame. They cannot be considered as ‘model towns’.
Dinner Plain in the Alpine Shire is the exception. This was laid out and built in the
1980s, with controls on the character and materials of buildings.
58
Fairfax Walkabout travel guide
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OTHER EXAMPLES OF PLANNED COMMUNITIES IN AUSTRALIA
CANBERRA, ACT
National capital and largest architect-designed ‘model city’ in Australia. It was
designed by Chicago architect Walter Burley Griffin for the design competition in 1911,
and adopted in 1913.
Griffin’s design symbolically placed Capital Hill at the centre of Canberra,
with wide avenues radiating outward, each named after a capital city and
pointing in the direction of that city. The land axis linked Mt Ainslie to
Capital Hill. The water axis ran from Black Mountain through a lake (which
would be created by damming the Molonglo River) and the municipal axis
ran parallel to the water axis from the city to Russell Hill. A triangle is
formed by running lines through these points and Capital Hill. Griffin
proposed that government buildings ought to be built on each side of the
land axis on the south side of a proposed lake, rising up in a hierarchical
manner towards a focal point on Capital Hill.59
ELIZABETH, SOUTH AUSTRALIA
South Australia’s public rental housing proportions have historically been higher than
other Australian States, because of strong government policies to support industrial
development with public housing on large estates close to major industries. Housing
development at Elizabeth, South Australia, is probably the best example. Elizabeth is
of the same era as Mount Beauty, and the following is a summary of its planning:
Major developments occurred in the early 1950s with the post-war
immigration and industrial boom. Under the administration of the South
Australian Premier Sir Thomas Playford, the South Australian Housing
Trust was to emerge as the government’s instrument for urban design,
housing construction and industrial location. In 1949 the Housing Trust
undertook an important initiative in new town creation. Two thousand
hectares of farmland were acquired for the ‘satellite’ town of Elizabeth.
Elizabeth was intended to be largely self-contained, based on the model of
British ‘new towns’. The town was designed to have a balanced mix of
housing and jobs, a ‘town centre’ combining commercial, social and cultural
activities and a system of housing in suburban neighbourhood units, each
with its own retail hub and bounded by strips and open spaces. Substantial
industrial development was attracted to the greenfields sites, most
noticeably the General Motors Holden plant, together with defence
infrastructure such as the Weapons Research Establishment.60
Elizabeth has since been absorbed into the urban sprawl of Adelaide.
59
60
A Short History of Canberra, © Martin Miles 2000–2006, at http://www.canberrahouse.com.au/shorthistory.html
Playford-Salisbury Regional Profile, © Commonwealth of Australia, 2002
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Aerial view of Elizabeth, showing curvilinear streets laid out within a rectangular grid (image © 2006 Digital Globe)
MINING TOWNS – AUSTRALIA
Numerous purpose-built workers towns have
been constructed in since the resources boom of
the 1960s. These towns are a feature of mining
in remote locations with large labour-forces,
where there is no existing township infrastructure
that can be adapted or expanded. Buildings are
generally sold-up and moved or demolished
when mining finishes.
North-West Australia
Examples of ‘model town’ mining centres
(purpose-built) include Dampier (1960s, built by
Hamersley Iron Ore) and Karratha (1960s). Tom
Layout of Tom Price, Ashburton Shire, WA, looks
Price was built from 1965 to accommodate iron
superficially similar to Mount Beauty
ore workers and their families (250 houses built
in 1965). Population was 3500 in 1999, with 1200 houses. Houses are offered to
workers for purchase. There are many other examples of designed mining towns in
WA (and other outback areas of Australia).
South Australia
Leigh Creek: In the late 1940s, a model
mining town, cited as the first of its kind in
Australia, was designed. It was situated well
away from the original mining site, and
provided quarters for single men and houses
for families.
The town was subsequently moved to get at
further coal deposits found in the vicinity.
Construction of the new designed town of
Leigh Creek South from the air.
Leigh Creek South was begun in 1977, 13km
to the south of the old site, and the first
houses were occupied in 1980 (pictured at left, ©Flinders Ranges Research, 19962006).
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Queensland
Mary Kathleen (1958-1983) was built by MK Uranium Ltd as a ‘model town’ to house
workers at their uranium mine. The town was sold up in 1983 and all buildings moved
or demolished. Cloncurry Memorial Park & Museum has a number of buildings from
the town, and boasts that it is “Mary Kathleen in miniature”!
GOVERNMENT DEPARTMENT-BUILT HOUSING IN ‘PRECINCTS’
Defence Forces
Defence force housing is common in towns adjacent to military bases – usually a
precinct adjacent to base - housing families. Single persons accommodation is
usually within the base, so these precincts do not function as a ‘town’. Examples
include Sale & Puckapunyal (Vic), and Kapuka (Wagga Wagga, NSW).
Railways
Many places have precincts of housing for railway workers. In smaller towns on
important lines, these may make up a significant percentage of the town’s built
infrastructure (eg Ivanhoe, NSW). The cultural heritage importance of the railway
precinct at Northam, WA, has been recognised, and the buildings conserved by the
local council, as low-cost housing.
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WORLD VIEW - HYDRO TOWNS
Hydro electricity generating plants exist all over the world where suitable water
resources are available. Basic web searches for relevant comparative data were
limited largely to English language sources, and hence there are huge information
gaps. Some 20% of the world’s electricity is supplied through hydro-electric plants,
but information on hydro towns built by many major generators such as Norway
(almost 100% hydro) and Austria (about 70% hydro) has been difficult to find, and is
not included here.
NEW ZEALAND
Hydro-electricity in New Zealand
The first commercial hydro electric plant in New Zealand was installed at a mine near
Queenstown in the South Island in 1886, and the first significant public hydro
electricity supply was turned on at Reefton on the West Coast of the South Island in
1888. The first State-owned plant was installed in 1914 at Lake Coleridge, to supply
Canterbury in the North Island. However it took until the 1920s for the New Zealand
government to seriously examine the potential for large-scale hydro electric power
generation, and particularly the potential power sources of the South Island. Hydro
electricity supply grew rapidly in the years that followed. Karapiro and three stations
at Waikaremoana were constructed in the North Island, and Waitaki, Highbank,
Arnold, Monawai and Waipori in the South. After World War 2, large-scale
developments focused on the South Island. Hydro electricity now provides 60-70% of
New Zealand’s power needs61.
Hydro towns varied greatly - the construction camps at the first Waitaki Scheme
development before World War 2 were rough, and the dam-building work was carried
out manually with picks, shovels and wheelbarrows. Later, construction towns were
laid out with more thought for workers’ conditions, and some post-World War 2 towns
such as Mangakino, Otematata and Twizel were laid out as ‘model towns’, borrowing
from overseas designs.
Twizel
The New Zealand government purchased the land for Twizel in 1965, and construction
began in 1968. Twizel was to serve as a construction base for the Upper Waitaki
Power Scheme, and was to have been bulldozed into the ground once the scheme
was completed. A Scandinavian town design was used, featuring streets laid in a
radial pattern from a central ring road and a centrally located shopping centre
accessed by ‘safe’ pedestrian ways in green areas. The Scandinavian design had first
been used in New Zealand at the hydro town of Mangakino, built from 1946, and later
modified for use at Otematata in the late 1950s. Most Twizel houses were fabricated
at Otematata, and brought to the site. In some cases, surplus housing from
Otematata was converted for use at Twizel. After the Upper Waitaki scheme was
finished, concerted community pressure eventually led to the retention of Twizel, and
transfer to the Mackenzie County Council was completed in 198462.
61
62
Information principally from Sustainable Energy - Creating a Sustainable Energy System, NZ Government, 2004
Information from historical display at the Twizel Information Centre, Twizel, NZ
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Plan of Twizel showing street layout (from information
board at Twizel - photo R Kaufman, April 2006)
Trucking buildings prefabricated at Otematata to Twizel
(photo from museum display, Twizel Information Centre)
Dominant residential building type, Pukaki Place, Twizel
(photo R Kaufman, April 2006)
Aerial view of Twizel, late 1960s (photo from museum
display, Twizel Information Centre)
First section of township, late 1960s (photo from museum
display, Twizel Information Centre)
Variation, with small gabled extension, in early section of
town, Ruataniwha Rd (photo R Kaufman, April 2006)
Otematata
Otematata township was built in 1958 in association with construction of the Benmore
Power Station, commissioned in 1965, and Aviemore Power Station, commissioned in
1968. Otematata housed around 6000 people at its peak in 1963, and boasted a
single men's accommodation area, family housing area, shopping area, cinema,
library, recreation halls, sports pavilion and playing fields, a High School and Junior
School, a permanent village for ECNZ, an industrial area and a maternity hospital.
Houses for use in many hydro towns in the region were prefabricated at an assembly
line in the town. When Ministry of Works staff transferred to the new headquarters at
Twizel in the late 1960s, many houses at Otematata were sold off63. Today, the town
is a popular tourist destination, with a permanent population of just a few hundred.
63
Information principally from Meridian Energy fact sheet, Introducing Aviemore, September 2005, and the Beautiful Waitaki web
site, http://www.beautiful-waitaki.co.nz/otematata.htm.
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Construction line of single men’s quarters at Otematata
(photo from museum display, Twizel Information Centre)
Plan of Otematata hydro township (map ©2005, ProjectX
Technology Ltd)
Roxburgh Hydro
Roxburgh Hydro, also known as Lake Roxburgh Village, began life as a construction
camp for the dam and associated hydro-electric plant on the Clutha River, near
Roxburgh in the South Island of New Zealand. Works on the scheme began in late
1949. Little design was used, and the township was laid out around a single ring-road,
with some parkland buffers. The small township still houses some hydro personnel,
but the principal use of the remaining housing is for holiday houses and tourism
accommodation.
Roxburgh Hydro (Lake Roxburgh Village) layout, showing
ring-road, greenways and built areas (darker grey). (Map
©2006, ProjectX Technology Ltd)
Hydro house in Tamblyn Drive, Roxburgh Hydro, with
transmission towers on skyline (photo L Thompson, April
2006)
Cromwell
The old town of Cromwell in the South Island of New Zealand was chosen as the
administrative centre for dam construction in the Clutha Valley hydro-electric
development. To house the influx of hydro workers on the Clyde Dam in the late
1970s, a new suburb of 450 houses was joined onto the old town, and a new
commercial precinct constructed. The old part of town has a regular grid pattern,
while the new section is laid out in a curvilinear design, based around an extensive,
irrigated greenway system. These greenways lead from the housing developments, to
the schools, park and shopping mall. Other greenways were installed to buffer the old
town from the main work sites. The final subdivisional plan was a consensus design,
negotiated by engineers, architects, planners, local supply authorities and the Borough
Council.
The Housing Corporation undertook housing design on behalf of the
Ministry of Works and Development. Orcharding, wine industry, other agriculture and
tourism now sustain the township64.
64
Principally from The Cromwell Handbook, Cromwell and Districts Promotion Group, August 2001
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Layout of Cromwell, showing rectangular grid of old town at right, and curvilinear layout of new suburb at
left. Greenway systems are shaded green (map ©2006, ProjectX Technology Ltd)
Lake Tekapo
Lake Tekapo township was built in association with construction of the Tekapo A
Power Station, the second station in the Waitaki Hydro Scheme. Work on the dam
and station was started in 1938, but suspended between 1942 and 1944. Large
camps housing over 500 workers were established, and Tekapo A was finally
commissioned in 1951. Lake Tekapo today is a small but thriving tourist stop on the
way to Queenstown, and only a small percentage of the built fabric of the town
appears to survive from the hydro construction era. Most are fairly substantial houses,
probably built for staff, and there is no sign of the large camps of the 1940s. Street
layout in the older sections of the town is largely dictated by topography (moderate hill
slope), and the larger hydro houses tend to occupy commanding positions.
Basic hydro housing unit in Allan St, Lake Tekapo probably from Otematata workshops (photo R Kaufman,
April 2006)
Larger housing in Allan St, Lake Tekapo (photo R
Kaufman, April 2006)
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Hydro housing in Burnett Place, Lake Tekapo (photo R
Kaufman, April 2006)
Simple layout of Lake Tekapo, with street positions largely
dictated by topography (map ©2006, ProjectX Technology
Ltd)
119
Mangakino
Mangakino in the Taupo district of the North Island of
New Zealand was built immediately after World War 2,
to accommodate workers involved in the construction
of the Maraetai 1 dam, part of the Waikato hydro
electric scheme. A Scandinavian town design was
used, for the first time in New Zealand. The streets
were much wider and the township more open than in
the American curvilinear designs.
Mangakino
continued to serve as a base for further dam
construction into the 1960s - its population in 1960 was
5588. Many houses were removed in the early 1960s,
with the 1100 houses in 1961 being reduced to just
600 in 1962. Mangakino’s population dropped
dramatically after 1963, but has now stabilised at about
1250 (2005).
Town layout is shown at right
(information from Mangakino town web site).
Layout of Mangakino today
(http://www.mangakino.net.nz/histor
y.html)
UNITED STATES
The United States is the second highest generator of hydro electric power behind
Canada, and from the end of the 1800s, there have been a large number of hydro
schemes constructed, in a wide range of locations. Many of the construction camps
and temporary townships have disappeared, and many schemes were based
alongside existing townships. However, some hydro towns have survived and
flourished.
The United States has examples of very early hydro construction towns laid out as
model towns. For example, Rupert, Idaho, was built by the US Bureau of Reclamation
for construction of the Minidoka Dam between 1904 and 1909, and it was platted (plan
of ownership prepared) in 1905, at which time they described it as “a model town with
a city square”65. Some bizarre “model town” designs were also used. At the Shoals,
Alabama, a design in the shape of a Liberty Bell was adopted for one town built in
association with a hydro electric station and nitrate manufacturing plant66. Kentucky
Dam Village, built by the Tennessee Valley Authority in 1938 to house construction
workers on its hydro/irrigation scheme, had a housing area arranged in curvilinear
fashion, and an ‘administrative circle’. The village also had a completely segregated
‘Negro Village’, which had its own school and recreation building67.
Boulder City
Boulder City, Nevada (not to be confused with Boulder City or Boulder, Colorado) was
built from 1931 by the Federal Government as headquarters of the Hoover Dam (then
Boulder Dam) construction on the Colorado River. It was designed as a ‘model town’
to house the 5000 construction workers initially engaged in the hydro-electric/irrigation
scheme. Saco Rink DeBoer, a prominent architect and city planner based in Denver,
drew up plans for the new town, proposing a grand scheme for a planned community,
involving a series of greenbelts separating various sections of the town, and circular
65
Columbia & Snake Rivers Region, Northwest Travel, March/April 2005, p6
From History of the Shoals, H E Wallace, printed in the Times Daily (Northwest Alabama, USA), 25 February 1999, and
reproduced in http://www.rootsweb.com/~allauder/historyshoals7.htm
67
From Statement of Significance, Kentucky Dam Village State Park, Forrest C. Pogue Public History Institute, Murray State
University, Kentucky USA,1995, accessed at http://campus.murraystate.edu/academic/faculty/Bill.Mulligan/Kyv.htm
66
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blocks with multiple family dwellings. The Stock Market crash and subsequent
depression caused the project to be scaled down, and DeBoer’s original plans were
severely cut back by Walker Young and Frank Crowe, of the Bureau of Reclamation.
Denis McBride, a local historian and author, wrote that:
“Boulder City was laid out like a triangle pointing north up the hill and at the
apex of the triangle was the Bureau of Reclamation administration building.
On the streets just below that were the government houses built to be
permanent, built out of brick. Then below Wyoming Street is where the Six
Companies (consortium of six companies that built the Hoover Dam) built
their houses, their rabbit hutches, their little two, three room hutches down
there. And they were built strictly frame, bare wood floors. They weren't well
built at all.”68
At the height of construction, about 7000 workers were housed in the town. After the
dam was built, decades of argument on the future of Boulder City followed. The
Bureau of Reclamation’s original idea was that most of the town would be torn down,
leaving only a small nucleus for on-going operational requirements. The community
objected. Eventually in 1958, Boulder City became a self-governing municipality by
act of Congress, and today it is an all-round tourist centre with a population that has
risen from about 5000 in 1970 to just under 15,000 (2000). Of the approximately 7000
housing units in Boulder City in 2000, only 562 units from the 1930s survived, and
community and business infrastructure has been largely refurbished. An historic
precinct (Old Town) is subject to special planning and development controls69.
Aerial view of Boulder City, Nevada, showing street layout.
(photo from City of Boulder City web-page)
68
69
Boulder City, Nevada, circa mid-1930s (photo from City of
Boulder City web-page)
Quote from PBS Boulder City web-site, 2006, http://www.pbs.org/bouldercity/deboer.htm
Information principally from City of Boulder City’s web pages, and the Boulder City Master Plan, 2003
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View of Boulder City from the tower, early 1930s, with
single men’s accommodation in background (picture from
PBS Boulder City web-site)
Saco DeBoer’s original plan for Boulder City, late 1920s.
Triangular section can be seen at top-centre in the aerial
photograph (picture from PBS Boulder City web-site)
Grand Coulee Scheme
A number of towns were built during construction of the Grand Coulee Hydro Electric
Scheme in Washington State, USA, during the 1930s and 40s. The Grand Coulee
Scheme was touted as the ‘Eighth Wonder of the World’ when it was completed, and
today it is still the fourth largest hydro electric scheme in the world. Four townships Electric City, Coulee Dam, Grand Coulee and the smaller Elmer City - survive from the
construction era. Coulee Dam township is a composite of the former Mason City, the
first contractor-built town, and Engineers Town, the government enclave built by the
US Bureau of Reclamation. Construction of the well-designed Mason City was
completed in 1934, at a cost of $100,000. It had over 300 houses, several
dormitories, a 1000-seat mess, and a 33-bed hospital. Engineers Town was tightly
controlled by government, and was a model community. Grand Coulee, on the other
hand, was a sprawling camp that grew to become notorious as a centre of sin and
vice, earning epithets such as “The Cesspool of the New Deal” and the “Toughest
Town in North America.” Electric City was built in the early 1940s. All towns are now
reliant on operational staff on the scheme, and to a lesser degree tourism70. Historical
photos below are © D King, Coulee Dam, WA, USA.
Original contractor’s drawings for Mason City
Mason City, 1937, showing advanced design features
70
Principally from The Online Encyclopedia of Washington History, © 2006 HistoryLink
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Engineers Town (Government Camp), 1935
Coulee Dam township satellite photo
(image from TerraServer USA)
OTHER PLACES
Canada
Canada is the largest generator of hydro electric power in the world, and is also home
to the largest scheme, the La Grande Complex in Quebec (the Three Gorges Dam
Project in China will be larger when it is completed in 2009). Designed hydro towns
are abundant, although many of the smaller villages disappeared during a process of
rationalisation, which replaced the smaller schemes with larger ones that offered
better economies of scale and cheaper, more reliable energy71. Examples of small
Canadian hydro towns (pre and post-World War 2) include:
Churchill Falls, Labrador: Construction of this town began in 1967, to
house workers on the Churchill Falls Hydro Electric Scheme, seventh
largest operational plant in the world (2003). Churchill Falls started as rows
of caravans and metal buildings to service about 3000 workers, but as
families started to arrive, more services and amenities were added.
Permanent housing was nearing completion in 1969. Churchill Falls is
situated on the Trans-Labrador Highway, and today survives on a much
reduced scale, servicing highway traffic, tourism and operational hydro
staff72.
Bridge River (South Shalalth), British Columbia: Bridge River township
was built during the 1920s as a “model village” for construction workers on
the Bridge River Hydro Electric Development. This appears to be a rare
instance of community planning for hydro towns in Canada in the pre-World
War 2 period. The depression of the 1930s caused the whole project to
collapse and the town was virtually abandoned until World War Two, when
it was used as a Japanese internment camp. After the war, the hydro
electric project was revived, and Bridge River was the scene of
considerable activity over the next two decades or so. Little remains of it
today, and BC Hydro has installed a picnic area at the town site. Two other
temporary hydro townships were built on the project, Terzaghi and Lajoie73.
71
From A Brief History of Hydroelectric Energy in Canada, Natural Resources Canada web site, 11 September 2002, at
http://www.canren.gc.ca/tech_appl/index.asp?CaId=4&PgId=31
From Churchill Falls on Our Labrador web site, © The People of Labrador (The Combined Councils of Labrador), 2004
73
From Shalalth, Wikipedia on-line encyclopaedia
72
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Left: Churchill Falls, Labrador, Canada. Layout appears to be based on spoked-wheel, with commercial infrastructure at hub
(photo from Donald Teed’s web page, at http://www2.artistic.ca:8989/artistic/dteed/labrador.html)
Right: Bridge River township, nd, showing some design elements used, including semi-circle of huts, green areas, curved roads,
and a large school and sportsground at right (photo from Wikipedia online encyclopedia, accessed at
http://www.answers.com/topic/shalalth-british-columbia)
Pinawa, Manitoba: This was an early hydro settlement which developed
alongside the Pinawa Hydro Electric Plant in the early 1900s. Construction
work on the plant was begun in 1903, and the growth of the town was
organic, beginning with rough camps and tents. Many immigrants from
places such as Scandinavia and England flocked to the site. Various styles
of houses were built, and materials included logs, weatherboards and brick,
the latter for company buildings and senior management. The township
was abandoned in 1951 when the replacement Seven Sisters plant began
operation. A small town, Seven Sisters Falls, had been constructed there
in 1929 to accommodate hydro workers, but work on the plant experienced
many delays. The town of Seven Sisters Falls survives today, as a small
community servicing visitors on the Route 307 entry to Whiteshell Provincial
Park. The site of "Old Pinawa" is now a Provincial Heritage Park 74.
Between 1961 and 1963, a new Pinawa township was built to house
workers on the Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd’s new research site. This was
said to be one of Manitoba’s first planned communities75.
Old Pinawa, 1914, with log cabins, and school at right
(photo © Manitoba Archives)
Old Pinawa, showing company gardens - note substantial
brick buildings at upper right (photo © J Erickson)
74
Various Canadian web sites, including Manitoba Community Profiles, © Province of Manitoba, 2000, at
http://www.communityprofiles.mb.ca/cgi-bin/csd/index.cgi?id=4601051&print=1
75
Pinawa, Manitoba web site at http://www.granite.mb.ca/pic/overview.html
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Layout of New Pinawa (map from Pinawa, Manitoba, web
site at http://www.pinawa.com/maps.htm)
Out for a walk in old Pinawa, showing hydro houses at rear
- no date (photo © S Hobson)
Europe
In low-lying areas of central Europe,
many of the hydro electric plants were
built on the major rivers, relying on high
volume rather than high pressure for
power generation. For these, labour
was usually drawn from existing urban
infrastructure along the rivers.
In
Russia, the new city of Divnogorsk
(meaning “beautiful mountains town”)
Divnogorsk (photo from Siberian Tour Guide web site at
was constructed in the 1960s to house
www.sibtourguide.com/dam.html)
the 20,000 workers involved in
construction of the Krasnoyarsk
Hydroelectric Power Station and dam
on the Yenisey River, Siberia.
Another hydro city, Novodnistrovsk, was built for the Dnister Hydro Electric Scheme in
the Ukraine in the early 1970s. This planned city was characterised by high rise
housing developments, very different to the small hydro towns like Mount Beauty.
Little has been found during cursory web-searches on Scandinavian, French, Austrian
and other European hydro schemes and towns. In Norway, a large hydro town was
built at Notodden just after 1900, and was characterised by large, 2 and 3-storey
wooden houses which appear to have been built on a rectangular grid.
Housing for hydro workers at Notodden, Norway, in 1907
(photo © Norsk Hydro 2006)
The city of Novodnistrovsk, c1990s (image ©
Novodnistrovsk Town Council)
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Further housing added to Notodden, Norway, c1910 (photo
© Norsk Hydro 2006)
SOME ADDITIONAL MODEL TOWN IMAGES
Robert Owen’s Lanark, Scotland, 1785 (image from
University of Texas, USA, web site)
Titas Salt’s Saltaire, 1850-53 (image from University of
Texas, USA, web site)
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Architect’s 1936 drawing for Greenbrook, New Jersey,
USA, a ‘model town’ that was never built (image from
University of Texas, USA, web site)
126
Pullman, Illinois, 1880, designed by Solon Berman,
architect, and Nathan Barrett, landscape architect (image
from University of Texas, USA, web page)
Greenbelt, Maryland, USA, c1940 (image from University of
Texas, USA, web page)
W H Lever’s Port Sunlight, England, 1902 - a garden village
(image from University of Texas, USA, web page)
Radburn’s design for Greenbelt, Maryland, USA, 1928,
showing curvilinear streets. This became a prototype for
several other towns of the era (image from University of
Texas, USA, web page)
Ebenezer Howard’s designs for a garden city, 1898 (image
from University of Texas, USA, web page)
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