The mass migration of 1800 people to new homes in Suva marked the completion of another phase in Housing Authority’s scheme in 1969.
The scheme was to create the largest self-contained estate in the colony.
The Fiji Times report on Wednesday, September 3, 1969 described that by the middle of the month, five four-storey blocks of flats and 114 two-storey terraced houses in the newest section of the Raiwaqa estate would be occupied.
Land development and buildings had cost about $700,000.
A new sewerage scheme for the area was already operating and work began on an extension of the plant to serve the new section in adjoining Raiwai, where homes for 5000 people were then going up.
The authority was turning its attention to a nine-acre site to the north of the new Raiwaqa section.
Bulldozers had moved in for a large-scale ground-levelling operation that provided a site for a supermarket, theatre, petrol service station, offices, a small produce market, small shops and 40 quarter acre residential sections.
This newspaper reported that when completed by the end of 1971, the estate would contain a community of between 11,000 and 12,000 people – almost equal to the population of Lautoka.
The authority had also earmarked sites for schools, two of which were being built – a Methodist school to be opened on November 1, and a school which the Arya Pratinidhi Sabha of Fiji would open at the beginning of 1970.
Work was to begin in a few weeks on a new police station, this newspaper reported.
The authority’s director R.W Green said the whole scheme was the biggest of its kind in the South Pacific.
Special techniques for speeding up building operations by the use of pre-cast concrete slabs were being employed by the builders.
“We are very proud of our scheme,” said Mr Green.
“Although the newer sections of the estate will have a higher occupation density than the older section which was begun in 1959, there will be plenty of open spaces for playing fields.”
