Home Among The Gum Trees

The Age

Saturday June 16, 2007

Katherine Townsend

The outdoors is big at Tenterfield, writes Katherine Townsend.

BURNSIDE HEIGHTS

Tenterfield, 2 Tenterfield Drive, via Taylors Road

$124,000-$139,000 (land only)

Private sale

Agent VicUrban, 131 852

Melway 13 B8

VICURBAN'S Tenterfield housing development at Burnside Heights, near St Albans, seems to be more about outside than inside, with waterways, an adventure playground and public sculptures.

About 35 per cent of Tenterfield is allocated to open space, which allows VicUrban to boast that no resident will be more than 400 metres from a park. First impressions are of extensive native plantings, with a large avenue of gum trees and grasses already well established.

When finished in about 2012, Tenterfield will have 3000 residents. VicUrban is about halfway through its land releases, with 300 families already in residence in double-storey, single-storey and terrace-style homes.

Like all of VicUrban's new developments, there is an increasing emphasis on environmental issues, with recycled stormwater used in the wetlands and public planting areas. The estate has won three awards, including from the Australian Institute of Landscape Architects, for its wetlands and water-sensitive urban design.

These wetlands, lined with large granite boulders and native grasses, ramble throughout the estate, with walking trails alongside and a boardwalk crossing the water.

Tenterfield is clearly aimed at the family market, with a large and distinctive adventure playground already built halfway down Tenterfield Drive.

The estate offers a broad range of lot sizes, typical of VicUrban's brief to provide affordable housing. Lots in the latest release, stage 7, range in size from 470 square metres to an irregular 881 square metres and in price from $125,000 to $139,000.

Builders, including Porter Davis and Burbank Homes, are offering house and land packages from about $255,000.

The $125 million project is about 20 kilometres from the city, with easy access to the Calder and Western freeways, Western Ring Road and railway stations at St Albans and Keilor Plains.

© 2007 The Age

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