{"product_id":"2026200016286-secondhand-vital-connections-melbourne-and-its-board-of-works-1891-1991","title":"Vital Connections: Melbourne And Its Board Of Works 1891-1991","description":"\u003cp\u003eEdition: First Edition Thus\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eCondition remarks:\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBook: Good\u003cbr\u003eJacket: Very good\u003cbr\u003ePages: Good\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWhen a city grows, it is not its skyline but its hidden arteries — the pipes, reservoirs, and tunnels buried beneath the streets — that determine whether it thrives or falters. Vital Connections: Melbourne and its Board of Works 1891-1991 chronicles one hundred years of the Melbourne and Metropolitan Board of Works, the ambitious public authority that quietly shaped the health, hygiene, and urban expansion of one of Australia's greatest cities. Authors Tony Dingle and Carolyn Rasmussen present a richly detailed institutional history that traces the Board's evolution from its nineteenth-century mandate to deliver clean water and efficient sewerage to a rapidly industrialising metropolis, through to its transformation into a sprawling environmental and planning authority by the close of the twentieth century.\n\nWritten with scholarly rigour yet accessible prose, this centenary history argues that the Board of Works was far more than a municipal utility — it was a powerful agent of social and environmental change whose decisions fundamentally altered the landscape and lives of Melburnians. Dingle and Rasmussen draw on extensive archival research to illuminate the political battles, engineering triumphs, and public health crises that punctuated the Board's century of operation, illustrating how infrastructure is never merely technical but always deeply political. For anyone with an interest in Australian urban history, civic governance, or the hidden mechanics of modern city life, Vital Connections raises a compelling question: who truly builds a city?\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Secondhand Stock","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":49336802246875,"sku":"2026200016286-SECONDHAND","price":50.0,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0523\/7646\/9701\/files\/0f4dbfcb-8ec9-4420-81a6-16f38a95e08b.png?v=1789957964","url":"https:\/\/bookgrocer.com\/products\/2026200016286-secondhand-vital-connections-melbourne-and-its-board-of-works-1891-1991","provider":"Book Grocer","version":"1.0","type":"link"}