ABSTRACT
The frontage of Port Phillip Bay from Port Melbourne to St Kilda (Beaconsfield Parade) is a four-kilometre stretch of palmlined boulevard and waterfront promenade. The beach is almost continuously swimmable and the only buildings on the beach side of the boulevard are the occasional kiosk and change rooms. The boulevard is also an arterial road carrying heavy traffic that separates this housing and its hinterland from the beach. The suburban street grid to the north was fully developed in the nineteenth century, with a mixture of single-and two-storey housing. While a range of taller buildings from five to fourteen storeys have emerged along the waterfront since the 1960s, these are regarded as aberrations and the boulevard remains predominantly two storey with most under heritage control. The south-eastern section towards St Kilda is a mix of many architectural styles with building types ranging from single-and two-storey terraces to large detached Victorian and Edwardian mansions mixed with early twentieth-century apartments and a few high-rise towers. The north-western section towards Port Melbourne is generally lower in scale – primarily two-storey Victorian terraces. This waterfront from Port Melbourne to St Kilda is the only part of Melbourne that offers full beach frontage within ten minutes of the central city. The desire for access and consequent pressure for high-density development are immense.
