My name is Tahj, and I’m a graduate of Architecture. 

 

Considering you are from Queensland, I want to start this off by hearing about your first time going to Footscray. How much of Victoria had you seen at this point and what was your initial impression? 

 

I remember visiting Footscray very early when I’d moved here, just because one of my friends said it’s got really good food. I remember just being like ‘where is this place?’ Cause you have to go through the city and then catch a train… And it’s just so removed from the rest of it and I remember being like ‘this place is amazing, there are so many different types of people here,’ but then after that time I visited it I never went back again. I never really thought of it or made contact with Footscray at all. And then when we were thinking about the thesis, it just came back to me, how special it was. But yeah, never really had much contact with it besides that one encounter.  

 

Did you study it much in class?

 

Not really. We were just thinking of ideas for the thesis — we were obviously interested in formal urbanism and the idea of gentrification and multicultural communities and then I just remembered Footscray and I was like ‘why don't we go to Footscray and check it out?’ So we went back to Footscray and spent the day there just taking photos and absorbing it all. 

 

How would you explain the difference between informal and formal urbanisation 

 

Informal urbanism is typically types of urbanism that occurs outside the boundaries of formal urbanism. So, things like marketplaces that pop up sporadically or the way people adapt bus shelters to use them as temporary stores and stuff. That’s kind of what fascinated us about Footscray and we’d done research into informal settlements in Indonesia with Sidh. We kept finding really close similarities between types of urbanism that were happening Indonesia and South Africa and what was happening in Footscray, where the kind of residents who lived in the suburb are kind of able to express their own identity without some kind of overarching formal process happening. 

 

You put forward this idea of ‘adding to existing frameworks’ instead of just looking at ‘informal and formal urbanism’ as the only two things being the only avenue in your thesis — can you tell me about that?

 

Yeah, so just so really studying what was already happening in Footscray — cause lots of urban plans look at placing a new idea upon a suburb of ‘this is how this suburb should be,’ but we spent like two months just looking at what was already in Footscray for like two months and documenting it really intensely, before we proposed any kind of design or any urban framework. Because what’s already happening in Footscray is great and the idea is that we would kind of encourage that to happen more, as opposed to stopping it — which is what is currently happening.

 

Is that in reference to developers?

 

Yeah, one hundred percent. 

 

Well, I keep coming back to this quote of ‘do we have to be passive’ as this all takes place?

 

We just kept seeing, as we were studying the suburb, we realised how incredible each of its shops is and, you know, how people use space in Footscray. You can literally see it being destroyed in front of your eyes. There are towers going up that are forcing people out of the centre of the suburb. The new developments don’t encourage anything that’s already been happening there for so long. It’s happening right now.

 

Now, in the ‘Footscray Structure Plan’ that was in your thesis, there was a section where many of the raised concerns were over things like ‘loss of social diversity’ and ‘housing affordability.’ Did anything actually come of these raised concerns? - to your knowledge?

 

With the Footscray structure plan, we went through it. They said people had concerns about these issues but there’s nothing that has been addressed in regards to them. In fact, it’s normally the opposite to even in the actual structure plan. It actually promotes the opposite of what people are concerned about so like Maribyrnong council is purposefully trying to develop Footscray into a kind of mini CBD. But, I think one of the main concerns about this Footscray structure plan was where they kind of vetoed all concerns. And it became as though you can raise these concerns, but it will have no impact on the actual planning policy, which is quite rare. It’s quite forcefully ignoring the residents. Footscray market is one of the most important parts of the Footscray central region cause it’s just where different cultures, especially Vietnamese communities, congregate there. If that goes, that’s a huge portion of what’s kind of binding the central part of Footscray together. By zoning it all off as 25 stories, it’s kind of encouraging for it to be developed and not necessarily in a sustainable way. It’s very hard to develop a 25 story residential tower sensitively. Especially when the other areas are so low scaled. 

 

Your thesis used suburbs like Carlton and Fitzroy. I know both of these suburbs have had intense development, but could it be considered to be on the same scale plan as that of Footscray, where we are talking about completely changing the banks of the Maribyrnong? What I’m really asking is, are these plans for 25 story high buildings creating a precedent or following a pattern? 

 

Suburbs like Carlton and Collingwood, Collingwood is still being built up now it was more of an economic gentrification, you know the suburb became more expensive. Whereas in Footscray, it’s also a very physical change. I mean, it’s economic as well, but the suburb itself — the physical landscape — is totally going to change because it’s becoming a mini CBD. The whole zone in front of the train station is zoned to 25 stories, so that’s going to physically change the landscape. We found with Footscray, it’s a very forceful gentrification. Whereas suburbs like Carlton, due to their proximity to the CBD, and universities—that was always going to happen naturally. It still happened and there are negatives to it and positives to it. But it seemed like more of a softer change, whereas Footscray… It’s like a very specific… It seems quite targeted. They’re trying to make this happen quite quickly. 

 

So, as you said, “the council is approving and continuing to approve 20-storey high rise buildings.” What I would like to know, is what would be your message to the city of Maribyrnong council, in light of this? 

 

Yeah, it’s hard to think about a solution to all of this. What we’ve come to is not a solution but, we have been thinking of strategies for dealing with the suburbs case. Things like housing for people that live there and ensuring that they are able to stay within the suburb. The community itself is cemented there and then kind of encouraging the informal urbanism that's already present there to continue to happen as opposed to discouraging it. So, you know, proposing things like temporary marketplaces, temporary walkways and ways of encouraging people to keep adapting the suburb as they wish. Obviously dealing with the marketplace is a huge thing — like kind of cementing its value as an institution for the suburb. Whether that's combining community services with the market itself so it’s ensured that it’ll continue to be there, or rezoning it, as opposed to having 25 storey high building as some kind of cultural hub.

 

What would your message be to the residents of Footscray in light of this?

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Write the council. I think it is happening and it’s a really uphill battle because you know, it’s gentrification and an urban renewal that is happening so far above the suburb. Like, there are so many exterior forces pushing at Footscray. Write to the council and make them really aware of the issues that are happening at the moment. But it is so hard, to figure out how to kind of gather people to work against that tide. It does start with the council I think. I mean, it seems like the council, from my perspective, is being pulled from a few different sides and it’s kind of don't really have a strong stance against it but I mean it's for it but also kind of disguises where it stands. But it would be great if they had a policy to ensure it didn’t happen. Part of the thesis was acknowledging that density is going to need to curb in Footscray. I mean, development... it’s kind of inevitable that it will happen just due to Melbourne’s population and Footscray's proximity to the city—but, is there a way that that development can kind of occur while retaining whats good about the suburb?

That is the key problem because, at the moment, development is happening that's erasing the suburb. 

 

I was wondering about your opinion on the Siagon Welcome Arch?

 

Yeah, I remember seeing it being built,  it's kind of feels like a cop-out. Instead of actually having a strong cultural institution of Vietnamese people, it's kind of like, there's this symbolic thing... it's almost like a monument for a dead person. But after looking at it a bit more, we found it was designed in consultation with the community, so the way it was processed was fine. But it's just that there's so many other things the council should be doing besides building sculptural art. It's such a false recognition. It's like, 'we’re gonna build a 20 story tower but like here's a sculpture...?' 

 

And the bluestone rocks that adorn the corners of Paisley streets and Nicholson? 

 

Well, those have been really successful. It's become a congregation point for the African community, a lot of African people meet there and as we spent heaps of time in Footscray, that was one of the points that was a hive of activity. So yeah I think that's really successful because it encourages an informal occupation people can sit there, they can look from it, quite an informal meeting point but it’s really quite successful and it slows traffic through that point so it’s very pedestrian friendly.

 

I spoke to a resident once who told me he was sure someone would get their head smashed on them one day. I'm pretty sure he was drunk though. But there's always a couple characters around the suburb. 

 

That's another dimension to the multicultural aspect, those people have also lived there. You get multicultural communities and you also get the people living with drug addiction and disadvantaged people and they’re kind of acknowledged as a separate cultural community within Footscray which is what makes it so amazing, there’s all these different kind of groups of people that have nothing in common. But they all mesh and it works as a suburb. 

 

Well, in your thesis, you noted Footscray was once considered "undesirable" in terms of places to live. How much do you think that is due to racism? 

 

Probably quite a bit to be honest. The west has always been a bit separate from, I mean, if you compare a suburb like Fitzroy North to Footscray, it's so different and I think there is an underlying element of racism. You know, people from the Northern suburbs consider Footscray a separate entity I think there is racism there, to be honest. The way developers are trying to market it as this kind of cafe culture like you know, 'Footscray's got cafes now' which is such an anglo cultural thing. Whereas you know Footscray's got so many different cultural institutions that have been operating there for so long and now it's this one specific cafe culture that they're pushing for as a reason to value the suburb.