Features and Characteristics of the City of Melbourne

A Brief History of Melbourne City

A rectangular-like plan was developed to form the settlement of Melbourne city’s financial, administrative, ecclesiastical, and legal features. The interstate and suburban railway stations are located inside the core region. In the first Melbourne census in 1836, there were 177 persons, 35 of them were female (Prescott, 2017). The gold rush of the 1850s encouraged immigration into the city from the United Kingdom and other Australian colonies. By 1920, there had been a significant rise, with Melbourne becoming the most populated region in Victoria. Prescott (2017) points out that by the end of the Second World War the population in the city had reached 1 million individuals and by the year 2000, it was home to three-quarters of the Victoria Population.

Issues with Clean Water and Sanitation

Melbourne by 2010 had been declared as the “most livable city” however there were issues of individuals lacking homes and hence resorting to living in the streets (Delaney, 2017). The number of homeless people rapidly increased resulting in the potential threats to crime. Despite medicine advances and the increased understanding of disease causes, the method for ensuring clean cities still remained to provide clean water, and an effective drainage system. Additionally, the provision of waste collection and disposal systems and effective sewers could be an efficient way to prevent diseases. According to Goodman (2016) the City was characterized by the development of Maroondah dam and a steady efficient water supply from Yan Yean for clean water system.

Efforts to Improve Sanitation

Melbourne city council developed a health board to oversee health issues within the city. However, the city had delays in the development of a better metropolitan sewerage system resulting in poor disposal in Melbourne (Goodman, 2016). With the increasing costs of disposal, the city’s officials recognized the potential threat to water borne diseases the city developed a new board to ensure that they provide for clean water services and sewerage and treatment plants within the city.

Zoning and City Development

Melbourne city was characterized by zoning with the aim of ensuring the stable and effective development of the city. Zoning would ensure that there exists orderly development in the city. The mapping would include descriptions and classifications of business, residential, noxious trades, and industrial parks. The plan would include three zones of residence, two zones for business and three for industrial development. Each of the zones had prohibited and allowed uses. Social ideologies characterized the residential zones with a zone B developed to have detached houses and a plan of not more than 30 individuals per acre of land. Also, a zone C perceived to be for the inferior was created by the planning board of the city (Goodman, 2016).

The Impact of People and Environment on Melbourne City

The formation of the city of Melbourne takes a central theme to social relations and the natural environment. The impact of people on the riverine and flat landscapes with good soil and decreased barriers on topography characterized the sprawling of the city. The environment and people’s interaction has led to the development of specific myriad ways. Significantly, an individual purposely planted the trees at the center of the city (Cidell, 2017). The trees in the parks of Melbourne and streets are of origins from all over the world.

Concern for Depression in Melbourne City

Depression is a mental disorder that is characterized by loss of interests, loss of pleasure, decrease in an individual’s energy, guilty emotions and depresses moods. Additionally, depression is characterized by lower self-esteem of individuals, disturbed appetites and sleep and lack of concentration. Progressively depression could impact several anxiety symptoms. Mental illness and health are all determined by a consistent interaction of social, biological and psychological factors (Compton & Shim, 2016). The clearest evidence of the existence of depression characteristics are issues faced both in developing and developed nations. In the city of Melbourne, there are several features and characteristics of life within the region that results in and impacts depression.

Social and Economic Factors Affecting Depression

Individuals that are concerned with the conditions of health and equity of health are also involved in the understanding of mental illness since it impacts on ill and good of how individuals recognize society affairs. Depression mostly results from the effect of both social and health concerns in a particular region (Compton & Shim, 2016). In Melbourne during the planning and development of the city, there was the implementation of zones. However, the development of the zones lead to increased criminal activities and hence threats to security. The city’s adoption of private property laws could result in the domination of the understanding of commercial and market approaches to property (Lippert & Walby, 2013). It, therefore, results in the management of the disorder signs in the city.

Prevalence of Depression in Melbourne

Australian statistics show that out of every five Australians one experiences mental illness mostly attributed to depression. Mental illness statistically is ranked third as and as a major cause and burdens of disabilities. Depressive episodes are experienced by 4 percent of the Australian population with a relative number in Melbourne city (Mindframe, 2017). The residential plans enacted in the city involved the development of zones A and B; however, there existed maximum exclusion of the low-income earners (Goodman, 2016). Massive corruption in the city of Melbourne originating from the periods of the creation of zones and plans are attributed to be a cause of depression for the individuals of low-income.

Housing Affordability and Depression

One of the biggest concerns of Melbourne city is it has developed to be a city of the rich. The beginning of gentrification began several years back and the issue spread through to Cobourg and Brunswick. The city of Melbourne has experienced Issues with rent and migrants and new homeowners find it difficult to find houses with other people paying up to 6 months advance rent due to the unavailability of an affordable house (Delaney, 2017).

Carlton and Fitzroy are regions within Melbourne that have the most unaffordable real estates in the whole country. An individual within the city would have to move for quite a distance beyond the red maps of Melway in order to obtain an affordable housing plan (Delaney, 2017). There is a high increase in house prices that are lower than those in Sydney hence resulting in the individuals on average income not to be able to afford the houses and hence causing the steep increased depression rates in the city.

References

Cidell, J. (2017). Imagining Sustainability (pp. 30-31). Florence: Taylor and Francis.

Compton, M., & Shim, R. (2016). The social determinants of mental health.

Delaney, B. (2017). Melbourne is ’most liveable city’ again. But it’s also harder, crueller, out of reach | Brigid Delaney’s diary. the Guardian. Retrieved 7 September 2017, from https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/aug/17/melbourne-is-most-liveable-city-again-but-its-also-harder-crueller-out-of-reach

Goodman, R. (2016). Planning Melbourne. CSIRO Publishing.

Lippert, R., & Walby, K. (2013). Policing cities.

Mindframe. (2017). Facts and Stats About Mental Illness in Australia. Mindframe-media.info. Retrieved 7 September 2017, from http://www.mindframe-media.info/for-mental-health-and-suicide-prevention/talking-to-media-about-mental-illness/facts-and-stats

Prescott, J. (2017). Melbourne | Victoria, Australia. Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 7 September 2017, from https://www.britannica.com/place/Melbourne-Queensland

Short, J. (2014). Urban theory.

Sleight, S. (2016). Young People and the Shaping of Public Space in Melbourne, 1870–1914.