3.3 Frankston and the Outside World

The Problem with the Town Centre

The central roads proved a more enduring problem for Frankston. The Nepean Highway from Seaford to the Kananook Creek had been dubbed the "mad mile" and from the creek into Frankston speeding motorists had their view of pedestrians and cyclists blocked by overhanging trees and "heaps of bushes". While some councillors wanted to retain the ti-tree, others demanded that "they should set to work in Frankston and not worry about whistling birds in the ti-trees but should think of the public safety"; a charge resulting in rival accusations that one councillor was "evidently a man who was born with an axe in one hand and a box of matches in the other."1 Little had improved by the following year when the Frankston Standard called the traffic from Melbourne so dangerous that "elderly, semi-crippled persons or small children" could not cross Nepean Highway without risking their lives.2

In 1949 one overseas visitor told the newspaper that Frankston's traffic was the worst he had seen anywhere in the world.3 In July the highway up Oliver's Hill collapsed and other roads were reported to be in an "appalling state."4 Council failed to tackle the increasing chaos of parking and out off discussing a parking report for six months.5 While these problems were mainly to do with the central areas of the town, the council also battled with new residents and developers over the standards of roads on new housing estates (see above) and urged these new home-owners to take pride in their suburb by planting nature strips.6 The car brought other changes as well. Plans were presented for a Drive-In Movie Auditorium in Frankston in 1955 but were rejected by the MMBW (the Starlite Drive-In was eventually located in Skye Road).7 New road works were completed by the Country Roads Board with the realignment of Nepean Highway not only smoothing traffic flow but also presenting a threat to the War Memorial and the Avenue of Honour (eventually relocated an replanted).8 By 1960 the old kerbside petrol pumps were removed at the request of the Traffic Commission.9

At the end of the decade planning began for a new by-pass road to Mornington with a more direct and safer route than the old Mornington Rd. Council took steps to control heavy traffic, banning it from several streets. Councillors approached the railways to attempt to have the new Boom Crossing Gates installed; yet still they could do little to answer parking problems and a new Parking Subcommittee, once formed, resolved to put off making any decision for six months.10 At the end of the decade council took steps to improve parking and in 1961 had compulsorily acquired land near the station for a public car park.11 Over the later years of the 1950s, the stress on American up to date parking, the quality of drive in shops (dealt with in Section 3.2) all meant that parking became a key issue for the centre of Frankston. In 1956 Frankston had banned all day parking in Young Street. But the Standard looked forward to a scene within a decade when "thanks to a go-ahead council", Frankston would have "ten years hence better parking facilities than any other town of comparable size in Australia."12

Outside the central area a new problem emerged in the later 1960s with increased traffic on the formerly quiet bush roads of Frankston. Once by-passed, the Old Mornington Road for example took less traffic but was the route chosen by many speeding motorists. Frankston sought to control this with a lower speed limit which drew in turn a response from the Traffic Commission, who insisted that a 40 MPH speed limit was more practical and more likely to be accepted by motorists.13 The Traffic Commissioners informed Frankston that:-

"the commissioners experience has been that the changing of a speed limit from an unreasonably low value to a higher value more nearly appropriate to the circumstances of development has made little change to the actual speeds at which drivers travel but has the effect of developing better observance of existing speed limits which if too low bring the law into disrepute".

Ignoring the Traffic Commission, Frankston stuck to the 35 MPH limit.14 Other changes associated with a motorised suburb were the beginnings of motel accommodation in Frankston with the first Motel block at the rear of Frankston House in 1963.15

34 Long Island holiday flats, Gould Street: typical of the new type and design of bayside accommodation, post-war in Frankston.