This thesis explores interwar town planning in Australia, focusing on the period of large-scale urban expansion in the 1920’s. It problematises aspects of Australia’s urban planning history, particularly the 1920s ‘garden suburb. It also investigates the question of the use of international planning ideas in Australia, and the assertion or creation of authority by the Australian planning movement. The thesis additionally investigates the use of authoritative planning rhetoric for commercial or creative advantage. The thesis argues that the majority of innovative planning projects in the interwar years took place in the formation and foundation of the garden suburb. It shows that the garden suburb – assumed in much planning history to be an inferior form of Ebenezer Howard’s ‘garden city’ ideal – has, in fact, a number of precedents in 19th century Australian suburbia, some of which were retained in 20th century commercial estate design. Much of the Australian town planner’s authority at this time required recognition and awareness of the interests and needs of the general public, as negotiated through land vendors. As Australians looked to the future, and to the US for guidance, they were invited to invest in speculative real estate development modelled on this vision. The thesis concentrates primarily on the lives, careers and work of the British-Australian architect-planner Sir John Sulman; the Chicagoan architect-planners Marion Mahony and Walter Burley Griffin; and the Australian surveyor-planner Saxil Tuxen. These individuals were among the most prominent planners in Australia in the interwar years. All designed Australian garden suburbs, and combined advocacy with practice in private and public spheres. The thesis examines images and personas, both generic and individual, of the planner and the vendor. It shows that the formulation of the garden suburb and design practices, and the incorporation of international elements into Australian planning, are important in the creation of planning practice and forms. It also outlines the way these continue to have significant impact, in diverse and important ways, on both the contemporary built environment and planning history itself.

This study engaged with the architecture of the ‘Initial Structure’ at Newman College, 1915-1918, so as to establish this building’s place in the oeuvre of Walter Burley Griffin (1876-1937). Griffin’s architecture at Newman College was unparalleled in Melbourne yet it has never been the subject of a comprehensive study. Further, a measure for Griffin’s creative method and architectural style has not been developed to date although much scholarship has been devoted to the identification of events and works in Griffin’s career. Furthermore a substantive analysis of the architecture of Walter Burley Griffin was lacking that defined and distinguished his work from that of the so-called ‘Prairie School’, and of Frank Lloyd Wright. / Walter Burley Griffin was the conceptual designer of Newman College, while Marion Mahony Griffin (1871-1961), his wife and architectural practice partner was its facilitator. An evaluation of Griffin’s university education, 1895-1899, drew out the compositional concepts of parti, types and architectonics, as his own preferred means of working. Griffin’s mature style in the college design was also indebted to his architectural practice and experiences in Chicago, 1899-1914. An initial assumption in this study was that Griffin was eclectic, as were the American predecessors he admired, Thomas Jefferson and Henry Hobson Richardson, as were Griffin’s contemporaries, Louis Henri Sullivan and Frank Lloyd Wright. Thus the sources of Griffin’s architectural ideas, elements, and methods of composition, have been traced in this study. / American campus designs were surveyed and comparisons made with the other three late 19th Century college buildings at the University of Melbourne to distinguish Griffins’ innovations in college planning, construction and form at Newman College. The description of the commissioning, committee-work and program for the Newman College building revealed the social and political idealism that linked Griffin with his supporters among Melbourne’s Roman Catholic community. Griffin worked with ‘structure’ in mind, both compositional and constructional. Particular partis, typologies and architectonic patterns have been 3 identified in the compositional structures of the college building design. Similarly Griffin’s adaptations of new and exploratory building techniques were investigated. / Griffin’s sources were not only American. He derived inspiration equally from seminal European and Asian precedents, which provided instances of an underlying compositional structure. In the architecture of Newman College the composite plans, mixed construction techniques and materials, and richly layered forms allowed Griffin scope to express ideal college purposes, spiritual universality, and organic wholeness.

Australia in the early 50s followed a decade or so of frenzy activities in the visual arts. This resurgence of Australian art which led to its recognition in the UK and the United States also brought about a renewed recognition in the quality of domestic architecture. New boundaries in the design of the Australian home were being redefined, both in theory as well as in practice. Although the decades between the two Great Wars saw the importation of such influences as the Californian Bungalow and Art Deco styles (shades of Dudok, Mendelsohn etc.), it was during the post-war years that the term organic architecture that was much discussed by a wide range of practitioners of the time. This research aims to trace the journey of organic architecture from its origin to Australia and provide some insight into the workings of those who claimed to have practiced it.