Robert Lennox Suggett, Lawn at Dawn, 1985, Swanston Street, grass, greening
Summary
Over the decades, the inner-city’s main north–south corridor has been subject to various improving visions, proposed to make Swanston Street an activated, safe and higher performing urban space – not simply a thoroughfare. As early as 1971, there were calls to ban vehicles from the street and turn it into a green pedestrian mall. For a short while in 1985, when this photograph by Robert Suggett was taken, that dream briefly became a reality.
As part of the events marking the city’s sesquicentenary, some 11,000 square metres of grass were laid along Swanston Street between La Trobe and Flinders Streets, and trees were installed between Collins and Lonsdale. This overnight greening allowed Melburnians to imagine their city in a whole new way; the lush colours, low light and unpeopled space of Suggett’s dawn photograph underscore the utopian dreaming behind this pop-up parkland. Seven years after this experimental gesture in 1985, Swanston Street was partially closed to general traffic in 1992 and has remained a restricted traffic thoroughfare ever since.
