Sand castle builders 19/4/2006
Displaying the customary envy and short-sightedness of socialist dictators, the Bracks Government has just handed down a new policy — Coastal Spaces — aimed at curbing urban expansion along the Victorian coast.
Henceforth, councils must not allow any residential subdivisions outside determined town boundaries.
All that means is that development will become more intense and expensive and coastal town battlers — remember them, they used to be Labor constituents — will be forced out. It’s already happening to the pensioners and poor working class in places like Port Fairy, Queenscliff and Lorne.
Of course, those who have already stitched up their seachange investments will laugh all the way to the bank. And who would they be?
VICTORIAN Premier Steve Bracks and several of his ministers are among the seaside property owners likely to benefit from a surge in real estate prices sparked by new rules constraining coastal developments.
The utter gall!
Now don’t you worry about that http://www.heraldsun.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5478,18844212%255E2862,00.html
My dream is to have own one of those arty farty terraces along the boulevard at Albert Park.
You’re right, Slatts. Only the millionaires will be able to afford those suburbs.
From what I’ve seen it’s just like Cronulla in some Melbourne beachside Northeastern ‘burbs, though. Young men in hotted up cars making the beachside a no-go area at night. The old folks who can’t take it have already gone.
I used to live at Inverloch (a South Gippsland coastal town, 90 minutes drive from Melbourne). My family (great Aunt) had lived there since the 1930s and my mother inherited her house. From the 1960s onward the small working class and the large retired community were under pressure. First, schoolteachers from the surrounding district, two or three to a house, would bid up rents and then house prices, then the newly affluent La Trobe Valley workers started commuting from Inverloch to the SEC. Then likes of me moved in from Melbourne and worked from home. But as the poorer residents got pushed out of their seaside homes they moved to the new subdivisions up the road. And the subdivisions were very nice, economical little houses amongst Ti-tree bush. In the last ten years Inverloch has seen multi-million dollar houses built along the foreshore road and every shack is now at a premium. But with no new subdivisions the permanent residents will be forced to leave and the town will change forever and may even die as a functioning community. There will be more weekend latte lounges, restaurants and real estate agents, but the fish and chip shop, the pub, the video library, the newsagent, the football and netball club, the volunteer fire brigade, etc. will loose their base. The poor and retired people will have to move inland to Wonthaggi, where, at least, they will be nearer the hospital and supermarkets. Maybe there will be no one to put out the blaze when the million dollar houses catch fire! I don’t object to change, but when left to market forces people can find their niche and co-exist. Bracks and his ilk will never understand that. They claim to “represent the people” but in reality they despise and distrust the public. Taken to its logical conclusion, Bracks’ restriction on new subdivisions is Stalin’s collectivisation of agriculture writ small.
Let’s think about this. They’ve put a circle around Melbourne to prevent further development, meaning that quite a few of us will be living in apartments in the future. If you want to own a rural proprty to get away from the living within four walls they’re trying to stop us as well.
Seriously, this Government wants us to live like rats. They truly are disgusting.
And the Libs, where are they on this issue?
The Rann Govt has done the same thing with circling Adelaide. Must be all the rage among Labor folks.
” Maybe there will be no one to put out the blaze when the million dollar houses catch fire! ”
Good observation. Money can’t buy community. Curse of the boomers really.
Just deleted a comment that began with an insult, ended with a libel and spewed abuse rather than stated argument in the middle. Anyone’s welcome here provided they stick to the point and refrain from gratuitous offence.