Preston Baths, Preston C.1966
They call it “the Satellite City of the North”. Eight miles north of the city of Melbourne, Preston is booming. There’s Northland – Myer’s $18 million shopping centre – the new La Trobe University at Bundoora, new schools, new swimming-pools, new bridges and new homes. Fifteen years ago, at Preston, cows grazed in paddocks stretching north-east to the Plenty Ranges. Now the City of Preston covers 9155 acres and includes Reservoir, Regent, Kingsbury and part of Bundoora. Combined population is 87,426. And Preston Council spent $2,033,110 on private street construction last year. “In two years,” Mr Donath said, “all unmade streets in built-up areas will be made.” Last year the council spent $148,892 on parks and gardens. The 46-acre Edwardes Lake and park are used every week-end by oarsmen and sports enthusiasts.
The Northland shopping centre will be opened at the end of this year. Covering 51 acres, it will be the largest regional shopping centre in the Southern Hemisphere. A new bridge over the Darebin Creek has already been built for shoppers coming from Montmorency, Plenty, Briar Hill and Greensborough. La Trobe University, on 500 acres, swings into action with its first students next year. Plans are for it to accommodate 10,000 students. Last year, the council wrecked the old swimming pool and built two new ones right next to the school oval. Private enterprise has boosted the construction of two new supermarkets, with parking for 900 cars, off High St, in Preston. It was hard yesterday to see a blot on the landscape.