Perth's most notorious public housing complex finally faces demolition
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It was supposed to be the revolutionary utopian future of public housing within suburban Perth.
With an in-house grocery store, day care centre, chemist, hairdresser — and a school and swimming pool next door — the twin 10-storey complex of Brownlie Towers in the suburb of Bentley stood as the centrepiece of a carefully curated neighbourhood full of gardens and open space.
Then, to the horror of planning officials, it quickly disintegrated into a hotbed of crime, becoming synonymous with murders, suicides, violence and drug abuse.
"It was a slum, it was a ghetto — that's exactly what it was," said Rhys Davies, who as a teenager moved into a Brownlie Towers flat with his widowed mother soon after the building opened in the 1970s.
"It was not the place I would have ever wanted to bring a child up.
"It was too violent, there was fights constantly — as a kid you'd be frightened at getting your nose bloodied.
"There were murders, there were suicides, there were cars being set on fire in the car park, police turning up in their vans and breaking up parties, violently.
"It wasn't the happy suburban lifestyle for anyone I don't think."
But it was envisioned to be just that, with more than 450 self-contained units across the towers and townhouses in the neighbouring cul-de-sacs.
A 'dumping ground for misfits'
There were warning signs from the beginning that chaos was brewing at Brownlie Towers.
In 1972, US social policy professor Shankar Yelaja visited the site with an ABC News crew and predicted it would disintegrate into a slum.
...
Vibrant redevelopment planned
Almost 50 years since the first tenants moved in, demolition contractors have now moved on to the Brownlie Towers site and are working to dismantle the building piece by piece.
The WA Government plans to redevelop the entire precinct into a vibrant residential, cultural and commercial hub as part of the wider Bentley 360 project.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-04-07/brownlie-towers-housing-complex-faces-demolition/10918264
These were built in the 70s? Damn driving past them going to a friend's house in Bentley I thought they were much newer, like late 90s early 2000s.
It definitely looks like they have been renovated recently.
Reminds me of the Ballymun flats in Dublin. They too were finally demolished after years. Places like that eventually become notorious for the crippling poverty and lawlessness.
The way the article is worded makes it sound like the movie High-Rise.
and what of all the residents?
they didn't tell them about it and the problem solved itself
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