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EYNESBURY

EYNESBURY

Eynesbury is part of a pastoral estate first settled by the Staughton family in the 1850s.  The .estate was ultimately acquired by the Baillieu Family, who successfully managed the property before identifying the opportunity to develop a new residential estate on part of the land.  However this would be no ordinary subdivision, but rather a new township with a supporting town centre including retail and community facilities, laid out using New Urbanist principles.

Demaine Partnership was approached to review preliminary draft guidelines controlling development in the residential precincts of the town.  We suggested using the Australian urban vernacular of the Country Town as a basis for determining the style and character of the development.  The reality of most subdivisions is that their character is determined by builder designed homes, either speculatively constructed or built to order.  We suggested working with this reality by taking a sample of builder product and making simple adaptations to create a coherent urban character without imposing excessive costs on the residential product.  Some features of the estate are

• greater elevation of the ground floor of the houses, to give a better sense of scale,
• provision of large verandahs at the street interfaces,
• provision of low fencing at the street edge to give greater coherence to the streetscape,
• use of a limited range of building materials, with preference for natural and traditional materials

 These features, combined with new urbanist features such as rear loaded allotments, use of pocket parks and formally structured street planting, give Eynesbury a level of urban quality not achieved elsewhere in Victorian subdivisions.  The town is further enhanced by effective use of heritage assets such as the original Eynesbury Homestead (restored and converted to a Golf Clubhouse by Demaine Partnership and Stephen Akehurst), and the creation of a superb 18 hole golf course.

Master Plan layout, Stage 1 and Clubhouse, Eynesbury

Typical Residence showing fencing and verandah details

Typical Streetscape

View of Stage 1, Golf Course frontage

Town Centre