Apr 28, 2023 2 min read

Not Only Edwardian Architecture in Eaglemont

How is our neighbourhood character trending?

Neighbourhood character changes with each new build. Architectural styles, scales, materials and colours change - as do modern family's needs.

Nilss in our Austrian Bureau sends this Eaglemont item (above) from The Herald-Sun - (The A-Z story of Melbourne‘s suburbs), (Herald Sun, 07.01.2014)

Eaglemont's reputation was built on the architecture of the expensive dwellings built pre-WW1, generally referred to in Victoria as Edwardian or Federation style.

Not everyone wants a traditional home on a quarter acre block - many can longer aspire to so much land, bricks and mortar. Affordable housing close to jobs, schools, transport, services etc is a challenge for all of Australia.

Land subdivisions often carried covenants that block sales were conditional on masonry houses to a minimum value of £500 being constructed on the large allotments.

At that time this was 2 to 3 times the average house building cost in Melbourne.

Elaborate architect bespoke architecture was the Eaglemont norm

Regrettably too little foresight has resulted in too little public space - the parks, play grounds and community facilities that local residents can walk to.

Nowadays the area is desirable real estate - but 75% of established house sales result in demolition and replacement by multi-unit dwellings.

The resulting population mix is different to that of a century ago - and so are our residents' needs.

We now have more young families living in smaller dwellings, along with our local seniors "down-sizing".

Should these young children be strapped into a car seat to be driven to parks in other suburbs?

Should our seniors be forced to drive to remote services like community houses for exercise classes, for social gatherings, for gardening clubs?