730 PROCEEDINGS OF SECTION J. 
6.—THE LAYING OUT OF TOWNS. 
By Joun Surman, F.R.I.B.A. 
A typicaL Australian town is made up, like a chessboard, of 
a number of co-equal squares or rectangles. The chief merit 
of such a plan is its simplicity, and the ease with which the 
work of the surveyor can be performed. The defects are, how- 
ever, many, and it is a thousand pities that a work of such great 
importance to the future millions of Australia should be performed 
with so little thought and care. Unfortunately, the plans of most 
of our existing towns are fixed beyond the possibility of radical 
alteration, but there are many more yet to be located where now 
the gum-tree grows, and suburbs to be formed on sites at present 
innocent of the surveyor’s peg. In these, at least, we may avoid 
past errors, and make some attempt at a more rational system. How 
such a desirable end is to be attained I hope to point out very 
briefly under the five headings of ‘ Location,” ‘ Utilisation,” 
‘“‘ Decoration,” ‘ Legislation,” and “ Realisation.” 
LocaTIOoNn. 
In the first place a town should only be laid out where the 
conditions for its growth are present, such as a considerable area 
of surrounding agricultural land, subterranean mineral wealth, or 
at points suitable for trade, like the convergence of highways, an 
important railway junction, or a point of shipment. Too often 
these conditions are wanting, and then (if of Government origin) 
it is a direct loss to the community; if privately promoted it is 
still a loss, but indirectly through individuals. A comparison of 
the country maps with the country itself will show many an 
apparently extensive town still covered with thick brush from 
which even the surveyor’s pegs have totally disappeared. 
Granted, however, the necessary conditions for growth, the 
natural healthiness of the site is the next point to consider. 
Much may, no doubt, be done by the skill of engineers to 
improve an unhealthy site; but in a new country, where the land 
is practically unlimited, it is little short of a crime to permit any 
town to be formed which, from its location, will encourage disease. 
The most patent evils to guard against are swampy or flooded 
land and an impervious sub-soil. Of the former there are by far 
too many exAmples. I will describe one. In a rich, agricultural 
district of the parent colony a Government township was laid out 
many years ago on rising ground near the banks of a river. The 
upset price was low, but just on the other side of the stream a 
large area of land was possessed by a drunken old settler, which 
was, however, flooded in wet seasons. So far as position was 
concerned either bank would serve, as the river was bridged. 
