And so at the time there were many passionate people that It had killed MATS and its freeways but would also kill rail projects. There, at Port Augusta, following the playbook of the Victorians 30 years earlier, large power stations were built and power transmitted to Adelaide, from coal at the Leigh Creek deposit,  on the railway from Port Augusta to Marree which replaced the Pichi Richi railway (now a tourist venture). Donald Allan Dunstan, AC, QC (21 September 1926 – 6 February 1999) was a South Australian politician. It had just lost the countrified branch to Willunga, which passed through some emerging suburbs in Adelaide’s south in 1968. With MATS dead and buried, people had been expecting to see some sort of replacement for the last of the wooden cars that we being sandwiched between Red Hens or loco-hauled. The other states would not swallow it. The re-development of Light Rail did ultimately come to Adelaide, but long after Dunstan. The SAR by then really was a hollowed out shell. Don Dunstan was part Gough Whitlam and part John Cain. South Australia suffers the disadvantage that the nicest land is in the hills, where transport is difficult, and the flat areas are generally dry and dull. He was Director of Town Planning for Monarto and has written ... Interview with Andrew Strickland  Strickland, Andrew [Interviewee] ; Lewkowicz ... Dean Brown is a former Premier of South Australia who first entered parliament in 1973 when Don Dunstan was Premier. This blog will post at some point a plan for Adelaide Light and Heavy Rail. In this blog’s estimation that would have been overkill and the Dunstan plan was more realistic for Adelaide. Executive Council brought the necessary legislation into force and appointed the three members of the Commission. Some of that had to do with the decades of poor decision making since Webb, but some of it was due, at the most basic level, to the indifferent growth prospects for SA. Donald Allan "Don" Dunstan AC, QC (21 September 1926 – 6 February 1999) was a South Australian politician.He entered politics as the Member for Norwood in 1953, became state Labor leader in 1967, and was Premier of South Australia between June 1967 and April 1968, and again between June 1970 and February 1979.. In cropping and pastoral country the branchline network was extensive, while the arid zone had a few lines (mostly but not exclusively Commonwealth Railways). And let’s not forget that Canberra, as a modern creation, was also part of this vision. Faceted Browser ; Sparql Endpoint ; Browse using . October 16, 2014. Whitlam had initiated a National Urban Growth Centres program to decentralise away from the major capitals, and early thinking, which Dunstan had done even before Whitlam, was to consider the South Australian town of Monarto to be built near Murray Bridge. Contact. A similar split of course in rural areas – between miners and industrial workers in the Spencer Gulf and farmers elsewhere. One of Dunstan's pet projects, a city at Monarto, near Murray Bridge, to ease urban pressures in Adelaide, was abandoned. Untangling that would be a far larger task than simply building new, but potentially empty cities. ( Log Out /  Post WWII the Federal Government recognised this and with long term conservative Premier Tom Playford set about industrialising Adelaide and the Upper Spencer Gulf. However they marked a new standard of Australian comfort for suburban journeys, following just on the heels of the QR EMU and in just before the Vicrail Comeng. Either way, Adelaide had plenty of room to expand within its existing corridors by anyone’s standard. While this suburb was actually some distance from Adelaide, it was also a seaside suburb and that influenced the popularity of this corridor. Not enough were ordered to see the end of the Red Hens – that had to wait until a few generations of 3000 cars that followed in the 1980s. Dunstano di Canterbury, in inglese Dunstan (Baltonsborough, 909 circa – Canterbury, 19 maggio 988), è stato un abate e arcivescovo inglese.. Fu abate di Glastonbury e arcivescovo di Canterbury. Very late in Dunstan’s term, the government ordered what became the 2000 class, and had they arrived sooner they would have been the first of the new generation of suburban passenger car. The railway had purchased a large number of ‘Red Hen’ self-propelled railcars for the suburbs, though some locomotive hauled trains had still been running. Proposed city of Monarto A project to develop a new city. Don Dunstan Foundation. In that respect he was the man of the moment. Demographers and some urban planners might also have asked the question – what would such a project have going for it that it could counteract the Australian, and worldwide, drift from the country to cities. Instead, this car drew inspiration from the Penn Central Metroliner (electric multiple unit), and after that the Amtrak Amfleet (loco-hauled) stock. In the time of his predecessor, Steele Hall, the South Australian Government had come up with the Metropolitan Adelaide Transport Study or MATS. Donald Allan "Don" Dunstan AC, QC (21 September 1926 – 6 February 1999) was a South Australian politician. It may have been better if Adelaide had received a BART, clear, shiny, 1970s new trains on new lines. Level 3 230 North Terrace The University of Adelaide SA 5005 Australia. In this respect the SAR had failed to follow the prescription of this blog – particularly this post on Dr Beeching and all that – and continuously look for productivity improvements of at least an order of magnitude each decade. Dunstan’s period also marks not just the lost opportunity of his own time, but also how Adelaide and South Australia have struggled for relevance. State politics are usually mun- dane affairs, overshadowed by the federal scene in Canberra. Phone: +61 8 8313 3364; Fax: +61 8 8313 6309; dunstan.foundation@adelaide.edu.au; Don Dunstan Foundation Home The agricultural market was mature, and some of the lines were carrying uneconomically low loads over short distances. Needless to say it was not built as outlined, in fact relatively little of it was (most of these plans lingered on in other Australian cities but their projects rolled out over decades rather than years). The emergence of the lawyer Donald Dunstan on the scene would be a profound challenge. In 1970 the Labor-led South Australian government headed by Don Dunstan was concerned that Adelaide would become overpopulated following rapid population growth caused by a high birth rate … Social progressives and liberals found the Dunstan period, as with Whitlam, an exciting time where much of the old Adelaide and South Australia could be thrown off. Derrick CASEY. Level 3 230 North Terrace The University of Adelaide SA 5005 Australia. More. Whitlam had not wanted to make these massive cash injections without a commitment to AN. Don Dunstan was arguably the best Premier that South Australia has ever had. Vision yet to be realised – maybe soon. If, as is characterised about him, he was the walking image of the cosmopolitan, international cogniscento, it would be no surprise that he, and the better educated or better off Adelaidians, wanted nothing to do with a plan for massive freeways everywhere. This blog has also recently looked at the government of Neville Wran to explore in some detail the State Rail Authority we never got – and this commenced in the 1970s. The car that arrived had a body indirectly from the great railcar builder Budd, but not one inspired by the RDC of the 1950s or the loco-hauled cars of the same era. Phone: +61 8 8313 3364; Fax: +61 8 8313 6309; dunstan.foundation@adelaide.edu.au; Don Dunstan Foundation Home Level 3 230 North Terrace The University of Adelaide SA 5005 Australia. When Dunstan left office in an untimely fashion. In South Australia the decade saw an interesting variant of what was beginning to emerge federally with Gough Whitlam. DON DUNSTAN FOUNDATION DON DUNSTAN ORAL HISTORY PROJECT Dennis RYAN 2 suspect that a guy called George Lewkowicz got that job, I’m not absolutely sure, but I remember being contacted by Graham Foreman, if I recall: Graham said that he thought I was an interesting candidate and that there would be other jobs that would fall due. He entered politics as the Member for Norwood in 1953, became state Labor leader in 1967, and was Premier of South Australia between June 1967 and April 1968, and again between June 1970 and February 1979. South Australia faces a splendid future: Dunstan Digitisation Project Unearths Don’s Vision. The 1950s Operation Phoenix we never really got. The main system encompassed Gawler, Outer Harbour, Hallett Cove, and Bridgewater (on the main line to Melbourne) though many trains only ran to Belair. This was possibly the first recognition that trains were no longer a preeminent mode of urban transport, and that integrating them was not just good for the passenger, but administrative reality for a small operation. SPEECH BY THE PREMIER, MR DUNSTAN, ANNOUNCING PRELIMINARY CONCEPT PLANS 1<'UR MONARTO. Since the loss of the Willunga line and the likely loss of industrial services (with deindustrialisation) there was one bright spot on the heavy rail network and that was the extension, in stages, of the Hallett Cove line to Noarlunga Centre (the suburb) via the Noarlunga line. One suspects new cities would be the template on which to enact new social and economic policies, as well as to improve the quality of life of the vast middle class. It is hard to think about anything remarkable about the technology employed in SA by 1975. A transformational Labor government, one that is more remembered for its approach to culture, society and the arts, but today will be examined for its approach to rail transport. This was the revenge of gentile Adelaide on Dunstan – the Adelaide of no-change, no-development, nothing modern. New lines had been built, to complete the Transcontinental east line and to commence a north south one. From a rail point of view, Adelaide was not even contiguous with the previous satellite town of Elizabeth, let alone Gawler on the edge of the Barossa Valley. DON DUNSTAN made more of an impact on Australia than almost any other state political leader. Not like in Sydney and Melbourne, which had significant money to be made in local finance and property development. The biggie is the 1970s – as seen in these counterfactual explorations of Victorian Railways and the NSW Government Railways. Creation of the new city of Monarto advanced a stage further today with the establishment of the Monarto Development Commission, the key body in setting up the city, the Premier, Mr Dunstan, announced. The township was laid out in 1908. So one can imagine a highly stratified society in Adelaide – an old-world establishment getting rich off agriculture and mining; and a working class mostly in Adelaide’s northern suburbs. However, by the time of Hawke and Keating, much of the economy had been privatised, and without federal financial subsidies nobody would be moving. He resigned in 1979 due to ill health, but remained a vocal and outspoken campaigner for progressive social policy. Moments in time # 4 – Don Dunstan’s dud. OpenLink Faceted Browser; OpenLink Structured Data Editor Colorful, yes, (in more ways than one), controversial, clever, and even entertaining, he was twice Premier of South Australia between June 1967 and April 1968, and again between June 1970 and February 1979. and his successor lost the election, it was over. Change ), You are commenting using your Facebook account. The locality of Monarto was originally a private subdivision of section 210 of the Hundred of Monarto, from which it took its name, the hundred having been gazetted in 1847. Monarto. It is important to distinguish this line and station because the Noarlunga name covers a wide area and the Willunga line had a station so named. I don't intend to speak for long since not only are many of you very Change ), You are commenting using your Twitter account. It is, in some ways, the direction Perth ultimately went and that was a success. Whitlam would also have seen the existing cities as captive to their state governments and the business lobbies of their dominant industries. Don Dunstan is a Politician, zodiac sign: Virgo. It is not clear to this blog whether just about the entire SAR was to be shut down, ultimately, because that was inevitable or because of the decisions of Dunstan’s successors. In Adelaide the State Transport Authority had been set up to integrate trains, tram and buses. Other small lines, not necessarily industrial, ran to Semaphore (along the street) and Grange. In 1970 the Labor-led South Australian government headed by Don Dunstan was concerned that Adelaide would become overpopulated following rapid population growth caused by a high birth rate and high rates of immigration in the two decades prior. Remarkably Dunstan was premier for almost the exact decade, 1970 to 1979, only to collapse on the floor of parliament in ill-health and have to resign on television from his hospital bed. This line, though, had not really served commuters, and was truncated at Hallett Cove, though a goods line to Port Stanvac would soon be activated for southern suburban passengers. As much as this blog has argued that Adelaide had no real need of supplementation by a new city nearby, this was probably true for all the cities bar Sydney. TAG: Monarto. This vision though, has never really died. Besides Monarto, Whitlam had in mind cities in the Bathurst-Blayney-Orange area (to be called “Vittoria”), building up the existing Albury-Wodonga, as well as north of Perth, Monarto and the area south of Campbelltown. DON DUNSTAN FOUNDATION DON DUNSTAN ORAL HISTORY PROJECT . Dunstan would, in this plan, bring the Glenelg line into the 1970s and build a new line to Modbury. Phone: +61 8 8313 3364; Fax: +61 8 8313 6309; dunstan.foundation@adelaide.edu.au; Don Dunstan Foundation Home These are them. DON DUNSTAN FOUNDATION DON DUNSTAN ORAL HISTORY PROJECT Maurie DOWNER 1 DOWNER_Maurie-draftCleared.doc ... Alan, I know you were involved in the Monarto project. Echos of Dunstan are visible in Adelaide today, even in transport. Remote sites like Bathurst or even Albury-Wodonga (which probably had the best prospects) were just not supported by states. Readers are encouraged to read other sources on Dunstan as this blog post will not go into the ins and outs of SA politics or non-rail related stuff, except to mention how his presence, shaping SA arts and culture, has undoubtedly provided Adelaide in particular and SA in general with an interesting outlook on life, including resolving the economic issues that inevitably shape urban planning and rail. South Eastern Freeway Don Dunstan Monarto Safari Park Hundred of Monarto Callington, South Australia. For example, wanting a new station at Wodonga but not all trains stopping there (ie, NSW trains) or having two intermodal facilities at Logic/Barnawatha and Ettamogah. After four election wins, Dunstan's administration faltered. One thing that did get off the ground was standardisation of the connection to the interstate network – started in Dunstan’s time – and the line from Tarcoola to Alice Springs. Adelaide had quite an extensive passenger rail network. Adelaide today has a partly electrified, partly diesel heavy rail system, some light rail, but definitely an unfinished project, started under Don Dunstan. It may have been better if Adelaide had received a … There is no evidence he saw the world this way – but transferring to AN may have just been a vehicle for getting others to take responsibility for it. '— ; 1.4.74-Monarto Commissioners, Mr Richardson, Mr Pak-Poy and Mr Kazanski, Ladles and Gentlemen; Thank you very much for inviting me to be with you today.. Donald Allan Dunstan, AC, QC (21 September 1926 – 6 February 1999), usually known as Don Dunstan, was a South Australian politician. A leader with patrician interests and demeanour leading a Labor Government – who would need to lift the living standards of a base whose core characteristics he didn’t share, while combating the resistance of a strong conservative (in every sense of the word) opposition, whose language he spoke. DON DUNSTAN FOUNDATION DON DUNSTAN ORAL HISTORY PROJECT Stuart HART 1 HART_Stuart_draftCleared.doc I’m Alan Hutchings here on behalf of the Dunstan Foundation on 11th July 2007 to interview Stuart Hart, who was Director of Planning for many, many years, including those encompassing the Dunstan Decade. Don Dunstan was born on September 21, 1926 in Suva, Fiji (72 years old). It is a fair comment to say the Adelaide in particular and SA in general as sometimes attracted comment and even scorn from other states, and some of it not entirely undeserved. People, despite the hazards of moving, relocate to where they believe they have the best chances, and unfortunately that has been the big cities. Playford, for good or ill, may have envisaged an industrialised Adelaide and South Australia to get it off total dependence on agriculture and mining but the results were mixed. This was interesting from today’s point of view as it presupposed: Even responding to Dunstan’s own sentiments, it is hard for the rational person, versed in enough knowledge of urban planning and transport to respond, to believe that Adelaide was full or would get full in the foreseeable future. While there would have been a general indifference to the future of Glenelg, the Modbury line was a political explosive when it came to animating the Liberal opposition including the transport spokesman. Even the High Speed Rail we should have now. Don Dunstan Foundation. And as it was with Cain and Whitlam, sadly it can be said with Dunstan – a lost opportunity for rail. Possibly more so in SA than anywhere, as there was not a lot else happening. Whitlam like Dunstan was a Social Democrat in a Labor Party (there is a big distinction between Social Democracy and Laborism). So what drove Whitlam in this respect? Most of these took place after Dunstan, but they included: Of course for the workforce, it meant massive job losses, and vast numbers of branchlines being closed (though again, many of these occurred after Dunstan’s term). Don Dunstan. The feigned concern for the river valley was not enough to stop its successor, the O-Bahn, from being built also with ugly tracks, though that is something for future posts. ( Log Out /  The future for the agricultural lines, however, looked bleak. Don Dunstan Foundation. Monarto Commissioners, Fir Richardson, Mr Pak-Poy and Mr Kazanski, Ladies'and Gentlemen; Thank you very much for inviting me to be with you today. MONARTO DEVELOPMENT COMMISSION. Really the only legacy of Whitlam’s time was the creation of Australian National Railways (later AN) from the combination of the Commonwealth Railways, South Australian Railways (outside Adelaide) and the Tasmanian Railways. For rail fans though, it was probably better described as the chrysalis, the point where the caterpillar of many years could turn into either a butterfly or moth, and we don’t yet know which. Adelaide may have been better off with the sedate, Adelaide, Dunstan, Light Rail. The other major issue is that Whitlam’s social democratic vision would have had public sector employers as the major drivers. But it was not to be. Note the difference from MATS – which would have closed part of the Glenelg line, converted some to heavy rail, and had a separate heavy rail line to Modbury. By the time the ink on the paper was dry, Whitlam was gone, but the aim had been to consolidate all non-metropolitan railways in Australia into one. If only we’d put Monarto on hold, what a great piece of land that would be to expand Adelaide today. Perhaps trains to Gawler might have been regarded, ... started under Don Dunstan. The date today is 12th November and the location of the interview is at the Don Dunstan Foundation. Rhino Room Late Show . Perhaps trains to Gawler might have been regarded, in Sydney parlance, as ‘interurban’ not that the distinction would really matter, as there was plenty of capacity with longer, more frequent trains and ultimately electric. Don Dunstan. This distinctive look was a rounded body side with relatively small windows. Donald Allan Dunstan, AC, QC (21 September 1926 – 6 February 1999), usually known as Don Dunstan, was a South Australian politician.He entered politics as the Member for Norwood in 1953 at age 26, became leader of the South Australian Branch of the Australian Labor Party in 1967, and was Premier of South Australia between June 1967 and April 1968, and again between June 1970 and … During his ten years as boss (1967-1968 & 1970-1979), Don transformed the state from being basically 1690s Salem into a place in which a time traveller from the distant future of 2014 might not be embarrassed to take up residence. It is sad, in some ways, that Whitlam (and Dunstan) never got to building new cities that might have provided that template for a new way of life, Whitlam because his government was ended, but in Dunstan’s case because even he could see it just wasn’t needed. BART lines including a city underground really would have been that wakeup call that the city never ever seemed to get. Perth already, through its planning commission, had the ability to steer urban development to its north and south, and the concentrated landholdings of Wanneroo meant that the Whitlamesque vision of subdivided land, fast railways, freeway and local schools and shops has largely come true. Country passengers had the delightful Bluebird air-conditioned self-propelled cars running a very extensive network into the agricultural zone, while the Spencer Gulf was served by a connecting train, using similar cars to the Melbourne Overland, that was loco-hauled. Donald Allan "Don" Dunstan AC, QC (21 September 1926 – 6 February 1999) was a South Australian politician.He entered politics as the Member for Norwood in 1953, became leader of the South Australian Branch of the Australian Labor Party in 1967, and was Premier of South Australia between June 1967 and April 1968, and again between June 1970 and February 1979. Dunstan’s view was that Monarto would be a city environmentally suited to the tough conditions of its site, and to an ‘Australian way of life’. A rail advocate might have suggested a new town, if one was to be built, in a location far enough from Adelaide to be worth doing, and where a fast rail link to Adelaide could be inexpensively built. Dunstan Foundation Paper by John Mant provided 30 April 2011, based on interview with Andrew Strickland and George Lewkowicz on 28 June 2010. These cars were notorious for their fuel consumption and lack of power on hills – which saw them taken off Belair services after a while. What could have been the piece de resistance of the Dunstan era would have been his proposed Light Rail from the existing Glenelg Tramway, through the city and out along the Torrens Valley (really a creek) to Modbury in the north east of Adelaide. Sure, it’s not especially long or hugely interesting history – but it has its moments. Change ), Diversion Time: Whitlam and the New Cities. South Australia faces a splendid future: Dunstan’s Vision Unearthed . His short-term successor as Premier called the election and lost it, showing what a dominant figure Dunstan had been over SA Labor and over the political landscape generally. Contact. Address. They had not yet embarked on some of the game changing improvements that were to be employed by AN, and some of which had stemmed from Commonwealth Railways. Really a freeway plan (as readers will recall with Wilbur Smith in Brisbane and many other such plans of the time), nonetheless the plan proposed it proposed converting the rail system into an electrified middle distance system, possibly something like BART or what Perth’s system became, but with an underground city centre section, then using part of the Glenelg tramway (which would otherwise be closed) and then joining the Hallett Cove/future Noarlunga/Seaford line. The land was all owned by the Federal Government which gave Whitlam the possibility of a ‘playpen’ to test out his Social-Democratic vision and the new cities would extend that to the states. that Adelaide was somehow ‘full’ – which it may have appeared from an Adelaide point of view, but for those readers in much larger cities might appear odd; that a city only 50kms away from Adelaide would address this; and from the rail advocate’s point of view…that it would be poorly served by rail (but not by the South Eastern Freeway then under construction); This vision though, has never really died, Australian National and the State Transport Authority, Athens on the Torrens: Don Dunstan and the 1970s, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=16083718, Recent Posts to this Blog – Under The Clocks, The last leaves of autumn to the first shoots of spring: Victorian Railways under Bolte, Hamer and Thompson – Under The Clocks, remote control and non-labour-intensive safeworking, more traffic on flatcars, including trailers on flatcars, and experiments with road-railer trailers, a short extension from Hallett Cove to Hallett Cove beach – for passengers, The extension to the Port Stanvac Oil Refinery – for freight, Then onwards to Christie Downs (1975) and Noarlunga (1978). The other distinctive feature that marked these cars – the elevated pod for the driver to drive from – gave the cars their nickname ‘Jumbo’. Monarto Development Commission. Change ), You are commenting using your Google account. Many lines ran limited industrial services – to Tonsley (the Chrysler plant), to Finsbury, to GMH Elizabeth, to Penfield (Defence industries), along the Port Adelaide-Dry Creek connector, to Port Dock, to Hendon, to Northfield and no doubt others. In 1972, Premier Don Dunstan wrote on his vision for South Australia in an article for the Sunday Mail, titled ‘South Australia faces a splendid future‘. His vision for Glenelg to Modbury rail, had it gone ahead and then been extended to the rest of the system, might have also produced a Portland, Oregon, even before it was a thing. A line was under construction to Whyalla in the Spencer Gulf for steel trains (the city was already a major steelworks and had a small narrow gauge network for hauling iron on the narrow gauge). That might have been one of the many shots-in-the-arm that South Australia really needed. A favourite theme of this blog is the lost opportunities – the Australian Railways that never were. Canberra had been relatively free of much of this, with the public sector the dominant employer, and most of the population middle class and not working in industries. Dunstan’s vision was already a more sedate, artistic but modern view, the Athens of the South, to complement Colonel Light’s original vision for Adelaide. The Glenelg to City line was, in some respects, the closest Australia came to the US Interurban, complete with the US Style H cars that were noticeably larger than Australian tram cars and the operation had the hallmarks of US Interurban. South Australia’s most colorful pollie ever has to be Don Dunstan. È venerato come santo dalla Chiesa cattolica, da quella ortodossa e da quella anglicana.. La sua opera restaurò il monachesimo in Inghilterra e riformò la Chiesa dell'isola. South Australia faces a splendid future: Dunstan Digitisation Project Unearths Don’s Vision.