The Melbourne and Metropolitan Board of Works (MMBW) plans were produced from the 1890s to the 1950s. They were crucial to the design and development of Melbourne's sewerage and drainage system. The plans, at a scale of 40 feet to 1 inch (1:480), provide a detailed historical record of Melbourne streetscapes and environmental features. Each plan covers one or two street blocks (roughly six streets), showing details of buildings, including garden layouts and ownership boundaries, and features such as laneways, drains, bridges, parks, municipal boundaries and other prominent landmarks as they existed at the time each plan was produced. (Source: State Library of Victoria)This plan forms part of a large group of MMBW plans and maps that was donated to the Society by the Mr Poulter, City Engineer of the City of Kew in 1989. Within this collection, thirty-five hand-coloured plans, backed with linen, are of statewide significance as they include annotations that provide details of construction materials used in buildings in the first decade of the 20th century as well as additional information about land ownership and usage. The copies in the Public Record Office Victoria and the State Library of Victoria are monochrome versions which do not denote building materials so that the maps in this collection are invaluable and unique tools for researchers and heritage consultants. A number of the plans are not held in the collection of the State Library of Victoria so they have the additional attribute of rarity.Original survey plan, issued by the MMBW to a contractor with responsibility for constructing sewers in the area identified on the plan within the Borough of Kew. The plan was at some stage hand-coloured, possibly by the contractor, but more likely by officers working in the Engineering Department of the Borough and later Town, then City of Kew. The hand-coloured sections of buildings on the plan were used to denote masonry or brick constructions (pink), weatherboard constructions (yellow), and public buildings (grey). Throughout its history, the land in what is known today as Studley Ward of the City of Boroondara has been subject to continuing subdivision. This is evident in Plan 1301, where later hands have modified the original map to include streets created subsequent to the printing of the plan in 1904. Other annotations such as the ‘Reserved for Road Purposes’ beside the Yarra never eventuated. The plan continued to be modified to at least 1953, when a later hand noted that a particular site was ‘Property site P. McIntyre house’ in Swinton Avenue. Two significant houses in the area are outlined on the plan: ‘Swinton’ on the corner of the streets then named Effey and Maud Streets (now Swinton Avenue) and ‘Fairhaven’ [unnamed] in Stevenson Street. The gardens of the two David Syme owned mansions of ‘Blythswood’ and ‘Rockingham’, stretching down to the River Yarra, are also represented.melbourne and metropolitan board of works, detail plans, mmbw 1301, cartography

The architect, Edward Kilburn designed Byram in the Arts & Crafts style for the industrialist George Ramsden. Construction began in 1888 and was reputed to have lasted three years. The mansion had frontages to Studley Park Road and Stevenson Street, including gardens laid out with great taste, including pleasure grounds, tennis lawn, fruit and flower garden, and paddock.The size of many of the trees in the garden indicate that many survived from the garden of Clifton Villa, the previous single-storeyed house built on the site by the Stevenson brothers. Byram had views to Melbourne and Port Phillip Bay. The house was demolished in 1960, despite opposition from the National Trust (Victoria), and its gardens subdivided into residential allotments.An early photograph of Goathland (also known as Byram, Lowan and Tara Hall). The photo shows the front of the building during the period of Sir Malcolm McEacharn’s occupation of the house (1901-11). Edward George Kilburn, of Ellerker & Kilburn, had originally designed the house for the industrialist George Ramsden in 1888. When Sir Malcolm McEacharn purchased Byram, he was to rename it as Goathland. This has led to some confusion, as Goathland was also the name used for McEacharn’s other home in St. Kilda. The period of McEacharn’s ownership represented the high point of the mansion’s history. 'Lost Glories: a memorial to forgotten Australian buildings' was published by David Latta in 1986. It tells the story of a number of significant Australian buildings that had previously been demolished. A chapter in the book was devoted to Goathland, later known as Tara Hall. To supplement the text, he sourced photographs from a range of suppliers, chiefly the Royal Women's Hospital which had once owned Tara Hall, but had sold it in 1960. This is one of the photographs donated to KHS by the author."'Goathland', The Residence of Sir Malcolm D McEacharn"byram, goathland, tara hall, lowan, studley park road -- kew (vic.), melbourne mansions, e g kilburn - architect