By Alesha Capone
After last week’s council meeting, it was decided the McKay housing estates, which were under interim heritage controls, will be protected for future generations to see.
The council moved to protect the housing estates, which were established by H V McKay, owner of Sunshine Harvesters.
“In an effort to entice workers to move to the sparsely populated neighbourhood, McKay designed a program to provide housing for workers,” the council report said.
The wealthy entrepreneur was inspired to begin the project after travelling to England in 1906 to see model towns created by other industrialists.
After making the decision, administrator Meredith Sussex said the site was an important part of Australia’s history.
“I’m very proud to be part of this heritage overlay,” she said.
However, after the council received five objections to placing nine properties on the heritage register, the Brimbank administrators took some of the Sunshine site’s buildings off the list.
The owners of properties in Watt St, Derby Rd, Corio St and Hampshire Rd protested their buildings should not be listed on the heritage register.
But the council left two homes which the owners said had no “significant historic, architectural, aesthetic, scientific value and no cultural or social significance” on the list.
In a letter to the council, the owners said many parts of the houses have been demolished, replaced or modified beyond recognition.
They also said one of the buildings was moved to its current street from the original historical site.
