In the late 1960s and early 1970s, photographer Chris Lermanis documented Melbourne's changing inner suburbs. One photograph published by the Guardian shows people queuing to inspect the new Park Towers Housing Commission flats on Park Street in South Melbourne. Beside them, a lone protester holds a sign mocking the planning behind the development.
What makes the queue distinctive is the coexistence of curiosity and dissent in one frame. The visitors wait their turn to see the completed flats, while the placard questions the urban transformation that produced them. This was not a housing-allocation line. It was an inspection queue through which residents encountered a new high-rise model at the very moment older houses and factories were being cleared for towers.