RJA Roberts (1858–?)
Entry 53
Hunter’s Hill, Sydney, New South Wales
Roberts served intermittently from 1878 with the Local Land Board Office
of the New South Wales Department of Lands. The 1915 electoral roll identifies
him as a surveyor, the profession he doubtless followed at the time of
the competition.
This design is the work of a skilled planner. He successfully combines
radial, grid, and curvilinear street systems to create what would have
been a visually effective and functionally feasible city. There is a
central composition in the form of the Southern Cross within which Commonwealth
government departments would be located. The most unusual feature – one
requiring careful examination of the drawing to find and appreciate – is
the extensive system of what Roberts called ‘Plantations and Shelters’.
He doubtless intended these to serve as windbreaks as well as attractive
and easily accessible recreational facilities. Supplementing these plantations
is the equally generous net of wide boulevards with median strips.
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