Australian House & Garden — June 2017

HGINSIDER

68 | AUSTRALIAN HOUSE & GARDEN

<Professor Roy Green, dean of the business school at University

of Technology, Sydney, has given considerable thought to

liveability and the dynamic of economies in Australia’s cities.

Green argues that more planning is needed to integrate future

technology parks or advanced manufacturing centres with the

suburban residential landscape. He wonders why it is that in

Sydney, for example, high-tech developments in Badgerys Creek,

Macquarie Park or White Bay are considered essential for future

jobs, yet the construction of roads and rail networks remains

geared towards the CBD.

“WestConnex is designed to take people from the suburbs to

the city for work, and to connect Port Botany,”

Green says. “But highways are a very inefficient

mode of transport. It’s old-fashioned thinking

abouthowpeopleliveandworkinthecity.

Many cities are reviewing their approach – even

LA is thinking of more public transport.”

And so back to the casualties. Nothing short

of a government backdown, and the complete

abandonment of WestConnex, is likely to satisfy residents such

as Pauline Lockie, whose home at St Peters, like Ngo’s, was

resumed for demolition. For Lockie, the ill-feeling she has towards

planning authorities was compounded by a lack of notice;

she had only recently completed renovations when notified that

the government intended to take her home.

Lisa-Jane Koch, a campaigner for WestConnex-affected

residents near the inner-west suburb of Rozelle, says one of the

most galling aspects of government decisions has been sudden

plan changes. Homes marked for acquisition are no longer needed,

and vice versa. Residents are given “platitudes” when they really

want certainty, she says. Koch believes the Baird experience

shows that public protest campaigns can work.

Meanwhile in Western Australia, protesters have been

campaigning against the $540 million Roe 8 highway extension,

which was designed to deliver heavy trucks more directly to the

port of Fremantle – at the expense of the pristine Beeliar Wetlands

(see Case Study 3). The protesters hope the ousting of the Liberal

government at the recent state election will put a permanent

halt to the entire $1.9 billion Perth Freight Link project – a pledge

Labor’s Mark McGowan promised to honour if elected. As it

happens, contractors undertaking the Roe 8 highway extension

indefinitely suspended work after Labor’s

landslide victory so no government intervention

is yet required.

Elsewhere, communities have decided to

get on the front foot when confronted with

potentially uncomfortable development

decisions. In the north-west Sydney suburb of

Castle Hill, 25 homeowners have banded

together in the hope of selling their properties as a single

development (see Case Study 2). The intention is to maximise

the total earnings – which could be as much as $100 million for

the group – by taking advantage of proposed rezoning to allow

high-density living on the sites.

The Castle Hill group has set a trend, yet it remains unclear

at this stage how other such collectives, one totalling 90

homeowners, will fare. The stakes are high, and there’s always

a chance some homeowners will hold out and refuse to sell. The

result? A modest home with pretty period architecture ends up

next door to an apartment Goliath. Such is life in the suburbs.

MORE PLANNING IS

NEEDED TO INTEGRATE

FUTURE TECHNOLOGY

PARKS WITH THE

RESIDENTIAL

LANDSCAPE.