In Australian and New Zealand English, a quarter acre is a term for a suburban plot of land. Traditionally, Australians and New Zealanders aspire to own a 3- or 4-bedroom house or bungalow on a section of around a quarter of an acre (about 1,000 square metres), also known locally as the Australian Dream or the New Zealand dream. The land was frequently put to use with vegetable gardens, fruit trees, or lawns for family recreation.
The quarter-acre aspiration has changed in recent decades, with sub-divisions, infill housing, apartments, and townhouses becoming more common in large cities, and nearby lifestyle farming blocks becoming popular. Most "quarter-acre" sections are not exactly a quarter of an acre. With urban growth, properties tend to be smaller.
Famous quotes containing the words quarter and/or acre:
“In the haunted house no quarter is given: in that respect
It’s very much business as usual. The reductive principle
Is no longer there, or isn’t enforced as much as before.”
—John Ashbery (b. 1927)
“... a family I know ... bought an acre in the country on which to build a house. For many years, while they lacked the money to build, they visited the site regularly and picnicked on a knoll, the site’s most attractive feature. They liked so much to visualize themselves as always there, that when they finally built they put the house on the knoll. But then the knoll was gone. Somehow they had not realized they would destroy it and lose it by supplanting it with themselves.”
—Jane Jacobs (b. 1916)