Monarto, South Australia

The locality of Monarto was originally a private subdivision of section 210 of the Hundred of Monarto, from which it took its name, the hundred having been gazetted in 1847.[4][5] The Hundred was named after an aboriginal woman, "Queen Monarto", who lived in the area at the time of its proclamation.[6][7] The township was laid out in 1908.[6]

Boundaries for the locality of Monarto were created on 16 March 2000.[3][1]

In 1970 the Labor-led South Australian government headed by Don Dunstan was concerned that Adelaide would become overpopulated following rapid population growth caused by a high birth rate and high rates of immigration in the two decades prior.[8] In total population growth was in excess of 3% per annum and the government estimated the city would reach 1.5 million by the end of the century.[9] Further, the authorities believed that the growing population would sooner or later become a threat to the quality of urban life (social and environmental) which at the time was relatively high.[9][8] An expansion of the city would also threaten the attractive wine producing areas that could be found in the south and north of the city.[10]

To address the problems of Adelaide's rapidly increasing population, the state government proposed that another city should be built about 80 kilometres (50 mi) east of Adelaide. The government held the view that it would work as a kind of supporting city, where Adelaide residents could move.[10][9] The government originally used the name "Murray New Town" for the proposed city and subsequently adopted the name "Monarto" (to be formally known as the "City of Monarto").[11][12]

The government had estimated that 1.3 million was the optimal size for Adelaide which meant that Monarto would have about 200,000 people by the end of the century.[9] Monarto was to become a new city that would work as a satellite city to Adelaide and, since it was far enough away, it was important that Monarto would have its own identity and economy. This made it difficult to define what kind of city Monarto was supposed to be.[10][13]

Some people were suspicious about the project and the reasons behind it. For instance, some thought that the project was motivated by political interest and that the state government only wanted to improve its electoral prospects in nearby Murray Bridge.[8] Others believed that the state government only wanted to have a development project that was close to Adelaide and its economy, but still far enough from it to be included to the "new cities programme".[8] Additionally, a geographer called Professor Peter Scott was skeptical about the idea of a new city, pointing out that the population growth was less than had been projected.[14]

The main purpose of the "new cities programme" was to facilitate decentralised policy in regional and urban planning and, by that, alleviate some of the problems of rapidly growing cities.[15][16] In the beginning there was some opposition about including the Monarto project in the programme. Nevertheless, there was also a strong consensus that in order to succeed with establishing a city, it would be crucial to have a strong public sector employment base in the early phases of development.[17] According to the Monarto development commission, Monarto was going to develop into a small city after years of working as a large country town. This attitude would come to affect planning over the area, as the commission wanted to find a balance between the natural features of the site, its built-form and infrastructure.[10]

Small-scale scenarios, such as the city centre would have public spaces as a key feature, with adjacent buildings as complement. On a broad citywide scale, key landscape features would form the basis of park lands articulating built-up areas.[18]

Dunstan, on the other hand, had his own vision of the project. According to him Monarto was going to become "a new vision of Australian city" and was going to showcase best practice in social planning and family convenience.[14] The town would not contain any dilapidated housing estates or standard housing.[19] Instead it would contain palatial town-houses and other houses that were made for civil servants.[19] The inner center would provide only leisurely cycle paths since the town should be small but beautiful, a "virgin city".[19] To secure the economy, three industrial areas with focusing on light industry were to be established. The goal was to spread South Australia's industrial base around the state.[20]

Dunstan's vision did not succeed. After year of planning and conflicts about compensation of farmland that had been compulsorily acquired, the project reached a turning point when new studies showed that the population growth was excessive.[13][14] In 1975 the federal Whitlam government was controversially dismissed which resulted in the "new cities programme" being shut down.[14] This was a hard about-face and, after some years, in 1980 the Monarto project faced the same outcome.[21]

There are several reasons why the development of Monarto did not take place, despite the fact that it was an ambitious project. The main factor that stopped the project was the evidence of a much smaller population growth than was projected.[18] Because of that, the government lost its main argument for building a new town. This resulted in less support from an already doubtful federal government which became unwilling to give any further aid to Dunstan's project.[14][21]

Another factor was the economic failure, a combination of lack of success in attracting private enterprises and the economic recession that occurred during the 1970s, which made it very difficult to transfer any job from Adelaide.[14][18]

A third aspect which played a more unofficial part in the downfall of the Monarto project was the constant resistance and suspicion from various interest groups. Many never really believed in the project and this may have affected the project in terms of support and financial aid. For instance, many thought the geographical location was vulnerable from an economic perspective since it was too close to Adelaide to develop an independent economy.[14] On the political level, as already mentioned, many were doubting the wisdom of the project which made it harder to get everyone to work at it in the same direction. Also, the entry of a new federal government was a direct contribution to the shutdown of the project, due to their loss of will in contributing any more money.[22]

The project of Monarto was ambitious, but the shortfall in urban planning and the different obstacles meant it remained an unrealised proposal and the plan never came to fruition. A large portion of the land targeted by the project has now been taken up by the Monarto Safari Park, established in 1983 as Monarto Zoo.