Stoking up dreams : some aspects of post-war housing in the suburbs of Melbourne

One of the most urgent problems facing the Australian government and its people at the end of World War Two was the acute shortage of good quality housing. It was estimated that there were more than 300,000 families throughout Australia in urgent need of accommodation in 1945; in Victoria the figure was between 70,000 and 80,000 families. By the end of the 1950s the housing shortage had almost been eliminated and the standard of housing, especially for lower income groups, had improved enormously. It is in this period – to use Game and Pringle’s expression – that ‘a house, a spouse and two sprogs’ in the suburbs becomes the widely accepted norm. This thesis focuses on some of the social processes involved in this impressive achievement.