TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION F. 479 
3. The Planning of Sydney—Past, Present, and Future. 
By Joun Surman, F.R.I.B.A. 
Captain Phillip landed on January 26, 1788, in Sydney Cove, now the 
Circular Quay, and formed the first settlement in Australia. In his earliest 
report he refers to the large trees covering the site, the rocky points, and deep 
water close in shore. His plan shows a street 200 feet wide, and allotments 
60 feet by 150 feet for each house, but it would not have been a workable one 
for a city as the outlets were not studied. 
The actual plan followed the lines of the original barracks on the Tank 
Stream, and the track to the surrounding country (now George Street) later on 
developed by parallel and cross streets. 
Up till 1809 the growth was more or less haphazard, but Governor Macquarie 
then initiated many improvements, aligning the streets to 50 feet wide, abolish- 
ing nuisances on the Tank Stream, the only water supply, and reserving Hyde 
Park in perpetuity for the recreation and amusement of the people and 
exercising the troops. 
Sir Thomas Mitchell, the Surveyor-General, whose reports from 1827 to 1855 
are available, did much to improve Sydney, and, had his suggestions been 
adopted, much excellent town planning would have been effected. He was 
responsible for the reservation of Cook Park, the preservation of native timbers, 
and the laying out of well-graded roads into the surrounding country. His 
many recommendations include a contour road which would have obviated the 
steep William Street hill, the artistic treatment of Church Hill by a crescent 
and obelisk and radial planning leading up to a dignified entrance to Govern- 
ment House. He advocated wider streets, and obtained an order to align to 
100 feet if possible, and proposed an excellent lay out for North Sydney around 
the present Crow’s Nest. He also effected many sanitary reforms for traffic 
purposes, and suggested small squares at street crossings instead of rounding off 
corners. 
Outside the city, however, speculators cut up land into small allotments 
with frontages to 20-feet lanes, and so laid the foundations of the slums of 
to-day. Later on, the outer suburbs were mostly planned with 40-feet roads, 
but cross communication between suburbs was entirely neglected. Mr. (after- 
wards Sir) George Reid passed an Act to compel a minimum width of 66 fect 
for all roads, which is still in force and has its defects as well as advantages. 
For twenty-five years the author has been advocating town planning, and 
in 1908 this resulted in the appointment of a Royal Commission to consider 
the improvement of Sydney, and some of the recommendations thereof have 
been carried out, such as the widening of Oxford Street, the formation of 
Wentworth Avenue, and a new road from Woolloomooloo, and the resumption 
of one or two slum areas. But these improvements have been confined to the 
city proper. 
In 1913 the Greater Sydney Royal Commission recommended a scheme by 
which in time all the numerous suburban councils and areas would be absorbed, 
and power given to a unified council to town plan on a comprehensive scale, 
but legislative sanction thereto has yet to be obtained. 
As regards the future development of Sydney the most urgent problems 
appear to me to be as follows :— 
1. The provision of an underground city railway with branches to the 
suburbs. 
2. The building of the North Shore Bridge or tunnels or both. 
3. A bridge or tunnel to Balmain. 
4. The widening of the main city streets to at least 100 feet to provide not 
only for increasing surface traffic but for light and air to the buildings 150 feet 
high permitted by Act of Parliament. 
5. The formation of main north and south and east and west avenues. 
6. A proper convenient and beautiful land entrance to the city at the railway 
station, and a water entrance at Circular Quay. 
7. The setting aside of an industrial area with all facilities in the way of 
railway communication and water frontages, so that manufacturing may be 
carried on to the best advantage. 
