a Lutana Arts and Crafts house, c1922
Britain’s company towns were settled by giant companies for their workers. In 1887 for example, Lever Brothers Co. began looking for a new site on which to expand its soap-making business, build housing and develop services for their factory workers. They bought 56 acres of flat unused marshy land near Liverpool, well located near a railway line. The site became Port Sunlight, where William Lever built his industry and his model village. Lever wanted a healthy, happy and productive workforce.
The garden city movement was a contemporary but slightly different British approach to urban planning, founded in 1898 by Sir Ebenezer Howard. Garden cities were planned, self-contained communities surrounded by green belts. They included carefully balanced areas of residences, industry and agriculture. Howard’s book Tomorrow: A Peaceful Path to Real Reform came out in 1898, followed by Letchworth /Welwyn Garden Cities, both in or near London.
View of the Valley
over the top of the gardens
over the top of the gardens
Reformers before WW1 were concerned with town planning, sanitation, building regulations and slum clearance, influenced by the Garden City Movement in Britain and City Beautiful ideas from the USA. I have described planned towns in Australia in this blog, especially Colonel Light Gardens in Adelaide, an excellent example of town planning. It had radial street pattern, reserves and gardens, wide avenues, useful laneways, street frontages and a park-like setting. This post-WW1 Adelaide suburb adopted a consistent architectural style: Californian bungalows.
But I had not heard of Lutana Garden Villa in Tasmania. There had certainly been state government initiatives to build garden cities in Tasmania. In fact Charles Reade, the visiting English town planner, designed a scheme for Lutana, but all hopes were defeated by conservative politicians. Instead the next Tasmanian government negotiated the establishment of a private corporation, the Electrolytic Zinc Co., on the site. Herbert Gepp was the General Manager.
This zinc company did indeed plan a garden suburb complete with community and health services for its workers, but economic difficulties resulted in only a section being completed. The lasting legacy of this compromised vision was a low density suburb with individual houses and gardens; but without the associated overall planning.
Built between 1918-21, and designed by architect and town planner William Butler, Lutana’s prime goal was to build a most beautiful and healthful site just over the hill from the recently established zinc works. Since this suburb was remote from the centre of Hobart, the Company had to provide access to shops and transport. Two railways services daily allowed families to travel and shop.
Unlike the Colonel Light Gardens with its exclusively California Bungalow architecture, Lutana had excellent Arts and Crafts style houses that formed coherent streetscapes. The Garden City approach to housing development was further accentuated in the curvilinear street pattern and the arrangement of buildings. The strong visual quality of the open spaces and semi-rural land was loved, as was the development of the river.
I have no doubt that the provision of good housing at an affordable price by a major Tasmanian industry was to attract quality staff at a time of staff shortages. As was the company’s demonstration of the early C20th philosophy of Welfare Capitalism.
Before the village started, all the surrounding countryside was open farm land. Once the locality started to become the centre of the zinc working community, some workers would be living in the village and some would be building around the village. The roads were professionally organised and footpaths were laid down.
In 1922 General Manager of the zinc works, Herbert Gepp, set a first task in Lutana Village of planting special trees with his own silky hands. In the first 2 years, 6 dozen horse chestnut trees were imported to the village and planted.
But I had not heard of Lutana Garden Villa in Tasmania. There had certainly been state government initiatives to build garden cities in Tasmania. In fact Charles Reade, the visiting English town planner, designed a scheme for Lutana, but all hopes were defeated by conservative politicians. Instead the next Tasmanian government negotiated the establishment of a private corporation, the Electrolytic Zinc Co., on the site. Herbert Gepp was the General Manager.
This zinc company did indeed plan a garden suburb complete with community and health services for its workers, but economic difficulties resulted in only a section being completed. The lasting legacy of this compromised vision was a low density suburb with individual houses and gardens; but without the associated overall planning.
Built between 1918-21, and designed by architect and town planner William Butler, Lutana’s prime goal was to build a most beautiful and healthful site just over the hill from the recently established zinc works. Since this suburb was remote from the centre of Hobart, the Company had to provide access to shops and transport. Two railways services daily allowed families to travel and shop.
Unlike the Colonel Light Gardens with its exclusively California Bungalow architecture, Lutana had excellent Arts and Crafts style houses that formed coherent streetscapes. The Garden City approach to housing development was further accentuated in the curvilinear street pattern and the arrangement of buildings. The strong visual quality of the open spaces and semi-rural land was loved, as was the development of the river.
I have no doubt that the provision of good housing at an affordable price by a major Tasmanian industry was to attract quality staff at a time of staff shortages. As was the company’s demonstration of the early C20th philosophy of Welfare Capitalism.
Before the village started, all the surrounding countryside was open farm land. Once the locality started to become the centre of the zinc working community, some workers would be living in the village and some would be building around the village. The roads were professionally organised and footpaths were laid down.
In 1922 General Manager of the zinc works, Herbert Gepp, set a first task in Lutana Village of planting special trees with his own silky hands. In the first 2 years, 6 dozen horse chestnut trees were imported to the village and planted.
The houses and facilities were not the private property of the people in the village, but were to be rented. Once the village started, more homes were built by the company and more were rented out to workers. Then the village got their first shared community facility, Lutana’s village hall. Opened in 1924, the hall was surrounded by fine grounds, where the village children could play games. The interior of the hall was compact, but it had plenty of open floor space and an excellent stage at one end of the building.
The hall became the home for the village kindergarten. The parents were asked to assist the kindergarten teacher, if they were going to make it successful for the youngest children (a la kibbutz). A Sunday School was opened in the hall, to save the kiddies a long walk on Sunday afternoons.
The town's kindergarten
in Lutana's Village Hall
A mutual assistance tenants' committee of tenants was formed to promote social cohesiveness and to run a scheme of improvements. Many ideas were considered to improve the village, and to provide pleasure for the residents. For example the postal authorities installed a public telephone and opened a letter clearance. A Lutana Xmas Tree was placed in the Hall, for a children’s party. In addition to a bus service from Lutana to central Hobart and good sanitary conditions, Lutana gained its own gas supply, greatly appreciated by the villagers in Tasmania’s cool winters.
The houses, which had 4,5 or 6 rooms each, were fitted with modern conveniences, including sewerage, water and electric light. The company planned for 180 homes on the site, but they stopped at 42. These 42 houses were rented to employees at very fair rentals: a 4 room house cost only 20 shillings per week. Tenants were selected and the houses were allotted by a sub-committee of the Co-operative Council, Workers HAD to have a high moral character, and men with large families were given preference.
The houses, which had 4,5 or 6 rooms each, were fitted with modern conveniences, including sewerage, water and electric light. The company planned for 180 homes on the site, but they stopped at 42. These 42 houses were rented to employees at very fair rentals: a 4 room house cost only 20 shillings per week. Tenants were selected and the houses were allotted by a sub-committee of the Co-operative Council, Workers HAD to have a high moral character, and men with large families were given preference.
advertising for the Lutana co-operative shop
that also promoted social cohesiveness
The gardener/workers laid out their own gardens spaces in attractive flower beds, lawns and vegetable plots. The vegetables ensured fresh table supplies of onions, cabbages and beans at a minimum cost, and providing healthy exercise. The houses’ beauty was enhanced by pot plants and garden seats; creepers appeared on trellis work.
Re the interior of the homes, the colours were charmingly done and handy cupboards and shelves were built in. The baths have been made from our own rolled zinc sheets.
The views from the verandas revealed some of Tasmania's finest scenery, including the Derwent Valley beyond Prince of Wales' Bay and the lofty Wellington over Hobart. A beautiful panorama of green pastures was visible, dotted with splashes of colour, orchards, trees and shrubs.
Clearly the zinc workers’ houses were built on ample blocks, were sewered, well drained & fitted with modern facilities. So why did the company not start the second tranch of home building? And why did the Company write to the Co-operative Council advising there were very substantial reductions in the rents of Lutana homes? In 1926 house rentals were dropped to 14 shillings/week for four rooms! Workers were even advised that the very low rents provided an opportunity for them to start a Savings Bank Account.
Now called Nyrstar, the company still advertises the strong themes it's held since starting in 1917 on the site formerly called the Hobart Zinc Works. The strong relationship the smelter created with the community was forged early and continues today via community meetings, sponsorships and partnerships. A engineering heritage marker ceremony at Lutana was unveiled by the state Governor in Ap 2013
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