Carlton and the Campus: The University and the Gentrification of Inner Melbourne 1958–75

Abstract

Gentrification exhibits some common traits across Western societies but takes the colour of the societies in which it appears. In Australia, one of its most striking characteristics was its close association, chronological and geographical, with the post-war expansion of the universities. This study examines the relationship between the growth of the University of Melbourne and the city's premier gentrified neighbourhood, Carlton. It argues that gentrification was preceded and shaped by a process of ‘studentification’ and that the revaluation of the inner city landscape was inseparable from new understandings of urbanity generated by academics and students drawing upon university-based systems of knowledge and cultural production.

Keywords:

• Carlton
• gentrification
• studentification
• terrace housing
• university

Notes

 1. First Report of the Student Housing Board, July 1964, David Saunders Papers, University of Melbourne Archives (hereafter MUA) 73/1.

 2. D. S. Anderson, Carlton Redevelopment Survey, July 1965, MUA.

 3. Beth Robieson to Chair Student Housing Board, 23 February 1970, Student Housing, MUA.

 4. Farrago, 1 May 1970.

 5. Interview with David Nichols, 18 February 2003 and compare Reed (2004). http://www.deakin.edu.au/arts/chcap/research_consultancy/interview.php

 6. I am grateful to Gayle Jenes for her work on this analysis.

 7. George Tibbits, The Carlton Association, n.d., 5/3/1 Carlton Association Papers, MUA.

 8. Minutes of General Committee, 6 February 1971, MUA 96/32.

 9. “The Block Group”, 2/1/5; The Carlton Association, 2/1/5, “What is the Community Participation Scheme?”, 2/1/2, Carlton Association Papers, MUA.

10. Carlton Association Minutes, 10 February 1969, MUA.

11. Minutes, December 1968, MUA.

12. Saunders to Grahame Shaw, 13 November 1959, David Saunders Papers, MUA 73/1.

13. Minutes of the University of Melbourne Student Housing Board, 30 July 1965, MUA.

14. Carlton Association, Committee Minutes, 18 June, 21 October 1970, MUA.